The 38th annual Folk Alliance International conference, billed as the largest gathering of folk musicians and industry professionals in the world, was held at the stylish Sheraton Hotel on Canal Street in New Orleans on Wednesday, 21 January. It began with a program that honored both traditions and new artists. At the opening show, the 84-year-old Taj Mahal received the Lifetime Achievement Award for his illustrious career.
Meanwhile, a few miles down Canal Street at the classy dive bar Chickie Wah Wah, Nashville blue-collar singer-songwriter Will Hoge sang his diatribe against the generation of singers and activists of the 1960s, “Times Are Not Changing”. Hoge blamed baby boomers for turning their backs on social causes they once embraced and abandoning their principles. While Mahal was not singled out, he was a contemporary of and collaborator with Greenwich Village folk scene figures like Bob Dylan, to whom Hoge’s song referred.
There’s no reason to believe Hoge was singing to or about the people at Folk Alliance International. The song dates from 2012 and is one of his more popular tunes. An informal survey of the bar patrons suggests most were unaware of the nearby folk festival. However, Hoge’s diatribe provides a valuable lens to examine what was happening at the festival.
Folk music was closely aligned with left-wing politics during the 20th century. Many of the early performers had roots in the labor movement and used songs to rally workers. Folk’s simple melodies made it easy to sing in unison and encouraged camaraderie, as evidenced by songs such as “Solidarity Forever” and “Which Side Are You On?” Its practitioners saw themselves as part of the disenfranchised working class, a group whose numbers grew during the Great Depression.
During the Second World War, folk music upheld patriotic democratic values, as exemplified by Woody Guthrie, whose guitar was famously inscribed with the slogan “This machine kills fascists.” Folk music became the soundtrack of the modern Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s, commonly sung at marches and mass protests such as the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream“ speech.
This history provides the matrix from which the 1960s generation of folk musicians and their fans emerged, the ones Hoge lambasts in his song. The folk revivalists during this period associated the music with issues of social justice and applied its critiques to the Vietnam War, militarism, corporate greed, environmentalism, and political hypocrisy. Folk had become identified as a moral force for progressive activism.
However, as Hoge notes in his critique, the injustices the music vilified have not been ameliorated. Things have not fundamentally changed. Hoge proclaims that the 1960s generation became complacent, and America had become a worse place since the boomers were in charge. They no longer cared about social issues that did not directly affect them.
Which brings one back to the festival. The theme of this year’s event was “Rise Up”, but what this meant was vaguely stated in the program. “For our 38th annual conference, Folk Alliance International invites you to rise up—to rise, respond, and resonate with purpose in the heart of New Orleans. In a city where music marches through the streets and history dances in every note, we gather for a Second Line of Song—a celebration of folk tradition and a call to transformative action.” Um, huh—what purpose is that?
We are currently living through a time of crisis. It seems unnecessary to document the issues we are facing in the US and abroad. Several artists addressed social ills and the need to band together to make the world a better place in their songs or remarks during their showcases, but that was the exception rather than the rule.
The killing of Alex Pretti took place on the Saturday of the conference, and an impromptu sing-along of “Lift Every Voice and Sing” took place in protest at the hotel lobby. There were daytime sessions that focused on personal concerns related to race, age, religion, gender identities, and such (i.e, “Affinity Group: Indigenous Allies”). However, the sessions primarily addressed music business concerns (i.e., “Financial & Business Strategy for Creatives”).
The heart and bulk of Folk Alliance International focused on the music. Official showcases began at 6:00 pm and ran until 10:30 pm for four nights, followed by private parties in individual rooms where artists performed 40-minute sets, switching every hour, until 3:00 am. There were more than 150 official, jury-selected performers from 34 different countries. During peak hours, more than 60 musicians may be playing in other locations.
There was a lot of superb music. Although there was no official listing, the best younger performers I saw included the 18-year-old folk, blues, and Americana singer-songwriter Jack Barksdale from Fort Worth and the 21-year-old singer-songwriter Stella Prince from Nashville via Woodstock, New York. The 95-year-old David Amram, whose career dates back to performing with Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg in the 1950s, the 88-year-old folk revivalist Tom Paxton, and the 79-year-old award-winning blues musician Doug MacLeod were among the best older performers doing complete sets.
That said, here are five of the best performers I witnessed at this year’s Folk Alliance International. There were dozens more I could name, depending on mood and circumstance, but these stood out.
Guitarist Yasmin Williams won the Rising Tide Award, which celebrates emerging artists who embody the values of the folk community. Senegalese artist Cheikh Ibra Fam combined funk, jazz and pop styles into dynamic sound and dance rhythms. Singer-songwriter-instrumentalist John Smith is an expert fingerstyle guitarist who draws on traditional British folk singing styles. The young Taiwanese ukulele virtuoso, Feng E, wowed audiences with his physical dexterity and passion. The outspoken Crys Matthews, who identified as a Black woman, a butch lesbian, and a preacher’s kid from the South, whose personal concerns are central to her music.
There were many other great performances that should be noted, including sets by more traditional folk based singer songwriters and instrumentalists such as Emily Scott Robinson, Steve Poltz, Buddy Red, Beth Nielson Chapman, Hope Dunbar, Amy Rigby, Sara Beth Go, Alex Wong, AK Patterson, Abbie Gardner, Georgia Mooney, and more—not to mention the many other non-Western artists showing off their talents.
The fact is, the conference was filled with glorious acts that prove folk music is alive and well and even thriving today. It wasn’t that Folk Alliance International were oblivious to what was going on in the outside world, as artists like Matthews demonstrated. The situation was more complex. The music provided a haven, an escape, and inspiration.
Hoge’s critique of baby boomers not caring anymore may have the ring of truth when one looks at the current state of the world, but he ignores the fact that the world has always been in a bad state and threatens to get worse. Bob Dylan’s optimistic ode to changing times notwithstanding, in many ways, the times have not changed, and maybe never have in many fundamental ways.
The recent Folk Alliance International served as a place to restore and recharge for folk music lovers. The conference may not have changed the world, but it did provide solace and inspiration for those who were there.