I Got Yer Folk Section Right Here

I recently finished the docu-drama, Bound for Glory, about Woody Guthrie's life before he came to New York. After I finished watching the movie, I scrolled through my ipod to see what other singers I listen to who would be as equally inciting, political, or the voice of hard working people. Sure, everyone thinks of Bob Dylan, but that time has passed; I kind of think times didn't change at all and they just kept goin'. Everything is so subverted. So there are The Roots, Rage Against the Machine, Arrested Development, Billy Bragg...

I don't know. Maybe we don't need a singer like Guthrie anymore. Hell, iTunes no longer has a folk section; it's now a singer/songwriter section. Just took the people right out of there. When I was a teacher I was supported by a union and all I can say about unions, especially the United Federation of Teachers, is that they are another bureaucracy, another way to keep people down legally, standardized sameness. (The sad part is my job would've been worse, almost makes me barf to image, if I hadn't been "backed" by the union.) Hey UFT, how could you let our government get so test crazy? Really--millions of dollars spent on tests but I couldn't have a computer in my classroom? Sometimes I didn't have enough desks. Maybe we don't need a folk section anymore. Maybe we don't need no Woody Guthrie. Maybe there isn't room anymore for wanderin'. Maybe our existential crisis is just too great.

Well, wait a second. Here's one: Johnny Flynn. He's not as inciting as Guthrie, but he's definitely a noticer. The first song on his album, A Larum, addresses homelessness. Johnny Flynn is empathetic, that's for sure, and warm in a way we all could use warmth. Here's a sample of lyrics from his song, "Shore to Shore":

We listened to passengers stamping old songs

And we lose, what's to lose, when you haven't done wrong

Drums too slow for a funeral beat

No strumming of strings, no stamping of feet...

Hopelessness as hopeful? You may not know by way of the above lyric sampling, but the song I think really takes on how divided the world is (queens and knaves), by those who have and who have not (awfully considerate of you to think of me), and those who want there to be some kind of crossover (she shouldn't be dead/ she was too busy talking). Flynn's sideways realism is there and in "Cold Bread" he says, "I'm a Bowling Green, A delivery boy...In the middle of the morning/ Share your drinking nights with me." No, it doesn't have the NO COMPROMISE attitude that Guthrie had, but maybe it's an updated version. I think Johnny Flynn's songs are really important and his were the first I turned to after watching Woody Guthrie jump trains.

I would like to leave you with these beautiful lyrics, posted on the Guthrie's website:

A folk song is what's wrong and how to fix it or it could be

who's hungry and where their mouth is or

who's out of work and where their job is or

who's broke and where the money is or

who's carrying a gun and where the peace is 

The Kool-Aid Kids Really Kick It

I’m really impressed by the youngins these days. ’80-86 were good years to have babies. The youngins have prevailed against the evil leaders that the youngins had no part electing. The youngins have read and reviewed more books than anyone ever will. The youngins lap laps. Were their parents playing The Smiths while they were asleep in their cribs? Were these kids raised on organic produce only? Are their parents skaters? The mind wonders.

The youngins are artful. They can accomplish what you can, but they will do it faster and sexier. My old man’s sister, born in ’81, is one of the smartest people I’ve ever met. Claire Donato (’86) just released an incredible chapbook from Cannibal Books and she’s still in poetry school! Every poem that Julia Cohen ('81) writes is brilliant. She has published something like five to one hundred chapbooks, four of which came out before she finished poetry school and she has a book on the way. The poet Paige Taggart (’80) writes poems and also makes beautiful jewelry. Dan Magers (’80) let me read his mind-blowing epic sestina that follows the Snyder legacy on As the World Turns.  How do they do this? How did they come by their wisdom?

Two youngins’ voices of this bright, savvy, hip but not hipster generation: Laura Marling and Johnny Flynn. Laura Marling is actually younger than the youngins, weighing in at nineteen years, but I will patiently wait for the day when she can come play music in Brooklyn. My old man and I heard her interviewed on NPR when she was less than nineteen. Johnny Flynn is located on my ipod between Johhny Cash and Joni Mitchell, so you know I’ll be writing more about him. I’m rather disgruntled that neither singer will be playing while I’m in London next week (because they are both playing tomorrow), so I guess I’ll have to continue listening to Johnny Flynn while I’m at the gym. Yes, I listen to British folk music while I’m at the gym.