A reply to a article on No Depression website
http://www.nodepression.com/Columns_Writer.aspx?author=326
As for the end beginning of vinyl etc…from a purely personal point of view I prefer picking up a vinyl copy of Cash’s the Rambler to any ‘digital experience’ much as anybody in right mind would prefer an old Cadillac to a Humvee or whatever BUT the ‘Freemium’ world is here and we’re stuck with it.
Apart from nice little folk industries is anybody suggesting that it will ever change..especially now less not more cash around (the folding kind I mean).
I heard the kind of story Ronny telling a hundred times…I never got paid even when it for charity…in fact the lucky ones get ripped off the rest never make distribution. Talk about rock and a hard place….
We have entered a period of pre vinyl I believe. Tony Schwartz I remember ( I think) talking on Radio Scotland about the pre-recorded era and how minute inflections of rhythm and accent were ‘ironed’ out by recordings which then spawned imitators…slowly erasing the ‘difference’ between folks hardly a couple of miles apart.
Maybe we should stop looking at ‘global digital village’ as a bad thing and maybe embrace a new time Post Depression of genuine flowering of originality….no the touring musician at folk gig level not dead but he/she definitely struggling. In ten years time the system may have reverted to local music making only..who knows…is that such a bad thing.
Nobody will admit the fact that we don’t actually need many more music stars…there enough tracks in the vaults to keep the ipods brimming for a century.
I run a small online network called Flyinshoes that used to be a webzine..inspired by ND. I get that slew of cds as Linda mentions and many very good, many beautifully art-worked and many will never make a living….sad but true….the economy can only support so many geniuses.
So what do we do as the in-tray grows ever larger..the talents seem never-ending..the future ever more grim…
I’d suggest looking to local people, meeting up and just like in string band days ignore the incessant chatter of the global barrage…. True beauty and originality wasn’t ever defined by the medium…to paraphrase Marshall M. The message has always been in the voice and the less medium between that and your eyes, ears and heart the better.
We are in danger of becoming technology rich and reality poor.. So why dear friend run a webzine/portal whatever…..well why not…..one click may just help someone somewhere to find a new voice….that lives right next door…