By Michael Kornfeld<\/p>\n
Sensing a void and eager to help foster a spirit of community, \u201ca place to discuss issues related to living on the contemporary folk scene,\u201d singer-songwriter Erik Balkey launched a new listserv through Yahoo Groups earlier this spring. <\/p>\n
To date, more than 160 people have signed up for free memberships in LivingFolk, which Balkey describes as \u201ca community of kindred folk who share a commitment to, and are personally and spiritually invested in, the shaping of an evolving folk scene for today.\u201d <\/p>\n
While acknowledging that \u201cit [LivingFolk] kind of fills a vacancy left by an old list called FolkBiz,\u201d Balkey says he has \u201can aversion to discussions about folk music, or being a folk musician, that include the words \u2018career\u2019 or biz\u2019.\u201d In his view, \u201cLiving also means that the spirit of the discussion is about the changing, evolving, growing, vital scene \u2014 with an eye on the present and future, as well as the past.\u201d Balkey sees LivingFolk as being for people \u201cwho connect part of their hearts and souls to the scene and the music.\u201d<\/p>\n
LivingFolk participants have been eliciting thoughts and sharing ideas on such topics as the future of Internet radio, busking, the pros and cons of free gigs, Sonicbids & digital submissions, and how to do promotion, among others. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I love about a list like LivingFolk is that it instantly puts me in touch with a large group of people who are as passionate about folk music as I am,\u201d says Eve Goldberg, a rootsy Toronto-based singer-songwriter. \u201cSome of us are trying to make our living as performers, some host radio shows, some are fans, some write for publications, some help present concerts, some are agents or managers, and so on,\u201d she notes. \u201cWe are all from different parts of Canada and the United States, so we are dealing with different challenges and opportunities in our local folk scenes.\u201d Goldberg thinks \u201cit\u2019s this diversity of experience and involvement that makes a list like LivingFolk such a rich resource and support\u201d for a musician like her. \u201cThere\u2019s always more to learn, and it\u2019s great to be able to tap into the collective wisdom of a group like this to make sense of what I\u2019m doing in the folk world,\u201d she adds. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m fairly selective these days about what groups and lists I subscribe to,\u201d says Jim Colbert, \u201cbut LivingFolk has been one of the most rewarding resources I\u2019ve encountered: a geographically-scattered collective all more or less falling under that loosely defined blanket called \u2018folkies,\u2019 often like-minded\u2026 but never so much as to prevent lively discussion and counterpoint\u2026 bottom line, people who are there for one primary reason \u2013 the love of the music.\u201d<\/p>\n
While others may have more narrowly defined reasons for joining the group, Colbert says he\u2019s there as a fledgling singer-songwriter, folk DJ (WPSU-FM), runner of open mics and advocate for singer-songwriters in central Pennsylvania, vice president of a presenting organization, art director and teaching artist. \u201cThe wonderful part is: I\u2019ve been able to share and learn in every one of those categories,\u201d he continues. \u201cI\u2019ve felt challenged, inspired, even sometimes annoyed by some of the discussion\u2026 and that\u2019s all a very good thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Participation in the LivingFolk listserv is open to people engaged in any aspect of today\u2019s folk music scene. To join, visit yahoogroups.com, search for \u201cLivingFolk,\u201d click on it and then sign-up on the upper right side of your computer screen. You\u2019ll have the option of either receiving every note that is posted to the list or daily digests. You also can opt just to visit the site and peruse the postings at leisure without filling your e-mail box.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sensing a void and eager to help foster a spirit of community, \u201ca place to discuss issues related to living on the contemporary folk scene,\u201d singer-songwriter Erik Balkey launched a new listserv through Yahoo Groups earlier this spring. <\/p>\n
To date, more than 160 people have signed up for free memberships in LivingFolk, which Balkey describes as \u201ca community of kindred folk who share a commitment to, and are personally and spiritually invested in, the shaping of an evolving folk scene for today<\/p>\n
[To read the entire article, click on the headline].<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured-articles","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticmusicscene.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticmusicscene.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticmusicscene.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticmusicscene.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticmusicscene.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/acousticmusicscene.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticmusicscene.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticmusicscene.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticmusicscene.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}