fR316 PAGE 4 1/9/09 11:05 Page 1
f4
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his issue coincidentally
salutes veterans of
English folk, African
music and blues
among its main features, and
Photo: Judith Burrows
at the end of September I’m
proud to be involved in staging
a gig by American folk blues
hero Spider John Koerner who
will just have turned 71 (see
the advert on page 72). In folk,
roots and world music, unlike
pop, a long musical career is
not unusual and older performers are justifiably revered as
much as new young names are feted. There’s something
like seventy years between the ages of the youngest and
oldest artists who have appeared on the covers of fRoots.
This is nothing new, of course. When I was starting out I
idolised performers who had first made music in the 1920s
and ’30s and sometimes earlier, even some who were born
before things like radio and records became common media
for music transmission, at the same time as I was a fan of
great young musicians of my own generation. I was into old
blues guys, others were discovering senior English tradition-
al musicians. What I didn’t know, but can now appreciate as
I head towards the ages they were then, was that they did-
n’t think they were old people inside their heads. I remem-
ber Bob Copper telling me in his early eighties that he had
to remind himself that he wasn’t still 29: when he socialised
with people of younger generations who shared the same
musical enthusiasms, it never occurred to him that he was
any different in age to them. Music is a fantastic leveller
between the generations.
Nevertheless, I’ve still been taken aback a few times
recently by simple facts and figures. When I was a teenager
discovering the early records by blues players like Charley
Patton, Son House and Skip James in the mid-1960s (the lat-
ter two I was lucky to see perform live), those recordings
were around 35 years old. At that age they seemed to come
from some unimaginably distant place in the past, rendered
exotic by time. Well, all those classic British folk records of
the 1960s by Martin Carthy, the Watersons, Shirley Collins,
Davey Graham, Anne Briggs are around a decade older
than that now. Spider John Koerner’s Elektra recordings,
like the early Bob Dylan albums, are 45 years old. My own
recently re-issued debut album is 40 years old!
None of the current generation of brilliant young folk
performers and their followers were even born then. Sud-
denly, I get a grasp on why this new young audience are
regarding the recordings and artists of that era in awe, why
collectors are paying small fortunes for records on eBay. But
crikey, where did all those years go so quickly?!
0 0 0 0
As mentioned last issue, the next fRoots will be a
November/ December double. Thanks to Arts Council Eng-
land funding, you’ll be getting a CD with it called Looking
NEW! DIGITAL EDITION!
For A New England, which I immodestly reckon is a killer
compilation of the best that the new English folk scene has
with a full sample issue to read online to offer, including some exclusive tracks. In fact, you could
say it’s a fantastic bargain at £6 with a rather splendid free
magazine attached! Get salivating now!
Ian Anderson
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