Originally published in FoT Issue 93: Oct-Dec 2002
Tempus fugit when you’re having fun - which Sandy Denny so eloquently translated from the Latin as ‘Who knows where the time goes?’ And it seems the older you get, the quicker it fugits. I recently noticed that I have now been running the Ram Club’s web site for five years, which I thought was quite a long time until I realised I have been writing this column for six! But hold the applause - the reason I am drawing this to your attention, however much I may enjoy bathing in the warm glow of your good wishes, is that when I was proof-reading through the Ram’s links page, consisting of all those artists who have visited the club during that time, it struck me that what I was reading was a remarkable roll-call of the turn-of-the-Millennium folk scene - and not just from the UK - from the Albion Band to the Wrigley Sisters. So of course I thought I should do something about it. By the time you are reading this, I should have completed said project, which will be an alphabetical index of all the Ram’s guests since 1997 whether they have a web site or not, and if they do, a link to their site. If they don’t, you can check out the blurb heralding their visit. It could be quite useful to someone who is trying to make contact with, or find out a little more information about, an artist or band.
I don’t think I have mentioned blogs - otherwise known as web logs - in this column before. Though of course I might just have forgotten, which also seems to be happening more frequently. Blogs are effectively online journals, in which the writers sometimes do little more than shoot the breeze, but often also share with the reader links to web sites they have found interesting or provocative. In a way they are like the online version of a treeware column such as you are holding in your hands right now, except they are usually witty. Find one written by a folk enthusiast and you have a ready source of folk-related links. I have included a few examples in the panel at the end of this column. (Online update 030208: The blogs are here, here and here). I used to write one, until my ISP blocked uploads from anywhere other than its dial-up number, which is how blogs are invariably written, using freeware such as Blogger. So my blog is now written quarterly and first appears in “Folk on Tap”!
It’s been an annus horribilis for folk music royalty, what with the loss of Hamish Henderson, Alan Lomax and Fred Jordan. I dare say if it hadn’t been for Alan Lomax the repertoires in clubs up and down this country would be a lot smaller than they are. The Alan Lomax Collection web site is full of information about the man and his work, including his research papers and the Alan Lomax Archive. There are also links to relevant pages about topics such as folk music collecting, or how Lomax’s cutting-edge approach enabled the Coen Brothers to use a 1959 field recording by Lomax in their film “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”. Being American, the site is pretty sophisticated. Being British, sadly Hamish and Fred are poorly represented on the Web.
I recently stumbled upon a couple of fascinating Joni Mitchell sites, Wally Breese’s very thorough fan site Joni Mitchell.com and the Joni Mitchell Discussion List. While I have always known Joni used a variety of open tunings, and have long been aware of her innovative yet under-rated technique, I have never really attempted to emulate her style of playing. What I wasn’t prepared for is the extraordinary variety of tunings she uses. And the best bit is - and this was completely new to me - she even uses her own notation system, and it is one which actually makes a lot of sense. Instead of writing out tunings using the note names for each string, she uses a letter for the pitch of the bass string, which is followed by numbers representing the fret numbers to which you tune the next string. So standard tuning EADGBE becomes E55545 and DADGAD becomes D75535. Bearing in mind this ties in with the way most of us tune our guitars, it is surprising this system isn’t used more often. Former classical guitarist Jim Leahy has compiled a list of the tunings for more than 90 Joni Mitchell songs for Wally Breese’s site. (Online update 030208: That link no longer works, but there is a database of Joni tunings here.) The Discussion List goes even further, with words and chords or tablature for 160 of her songs.
The autumn issue’s column by the way is the one I write each year while preparing to spend a couple of weeks in my low-tech caravan at the foot of a little piece of heaven on the Dorset coast otherwise known as Golden Cap. A pint of Palmers 200 in my favourite pub, the Telegraph crossword and a view of God’s own country by day, or another pint, the same crossword and local artists knocking out transatlantic folk and blues standards by night. Splendid. So I had an idea. I could write a paragraph or two about how useful my fancy new Wap phone is. Surely I could download song lyrics or guitar tunings. Forget it. Two years ago reviewers were complaining about how slow and how prone to collapse the system is, despite the heralding of this great innovation by the people who wanted us to buy them. More people would be accessing the Internet with Wap phones than with PCs, they insisted. Sadly, two years on, the system still stinks, and as a result not that many people are inclined to make their content available on it. What is the point of labouring over a web page if you know no-one can read it? The Internet grew out of a vast group of people sharing information. The text messaging boom grew out of a vast number of people wanting to communicate with each other. Then it all went horribly wrong. A few people realised they could make a lot of money by inventing a system where you could check your share prices on the train to work. How inventive. Anyway, I don’t expect to be able to locate anything useful for my guitar practice, kite flying or lying on the beach. Weather reports maybe - but then I can always find out what the weather is like by opening my eyes.
Finally, a word of warning. It is becoming quite common for web sites to be “hijacked”. This seems to have taken over from cyber-squatting, where someone would register a domain name such as www.folkontap.com - obviously a highly desirable cyber-residence - and wait for Sam to cough up. Some people have gotten away with it, some have not. With cyber-hijacking you need a little more patience, because you wait a couple of years for Sam to forget to renew his subscription and then you leap in and take over the name. And wait for Sam to cough up again. This is what happened among others to John Renbourn. His replacement site has bags of information, with exclusive merchandising of signed CDs, sheet music and of course live dates, as well as a particularly interesting section on John’s guitars. But of course it has had to be re-written more or less from scratch, because these hijacker chaps don’t tend to leave the pages around for you to copy. So the message is - don’t forget to pay the rent. Which reminds me...
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