I have no idea how to say what folk music, let alone what neo folk music is. I attempted to do a bit of research on these here internets and found a thousand definitions and almost as many contradictions. I guess that makes sense because, the common thread among all the definitions was that folk music is the music “of the people.” And when have people been known to agree?

For me, folk music tells a story and sometimes that story is contradictory, political or even just plain ugly. It is unflinching in its portrayal of love, of loss, of hope and of our survival. Folk music knows that life is a mixture of emotions and it isn’t afraid of any of them and when there are no words, we make them up, we speak through our guitar, we laugh through our ignorance or we just end the song after one verse because that is all there is to say.

For me, folk music is the story. Folk music uses each word, each melody’s rise and fall, each instrument and each beat to tell that story and nothing more. It isn’t simple but rather is purposeful. Folk music is at the heart of every culture because every culture desperately wants to have its story told.

For me, folk music takes the best of us, the worst of us, the most hopeful in us and make us the story that we all know and aspire to be. Who wouldn’t want to be part of this grand tradition?

For me, neo folk music dares to take this inheritance of storytelling and muck with a bit. There are a few new instruments, a few new ideas and a few new artists. I am proud to align myself with this new take on folk music and call myself one of these new neo folk artists.

I write and sing neo folk music.
I’d love to write and sing neo folk music for you.

– 5 March 2010