I was waiting in line at the grocery store the other night when a Vanity Fair cover caught my eye with the headline, "Where Have All the Folksingers Gone?" Naturally, I thought, they haven't gone anywhere. Where has Vanity Fair been?
I opened up the magazine to see a several-page spread featuring photos of folksingers and people who play acoustic music posing for the piece. Among them: Joan Baez, Judy Collins, Joni Mitchell, Arlo Guthrie and his family, fair enough. What interested me was the flock of newer artists they chose to profile as the younger breed of American folk singer comparable to those aforementioned legendary protest singers. There was no Ani DiFranco, no Dan Bern, not even any Eric Schwarz or Greg Klyma (if they're looking for people who are even newer).
While the artists they chose to spotlight can, in some cases (Ray LaMontagne, Ben Kweller) be considered folksingers comparable as artists to the Guthries, Baez, Mitchell and Collins, others (Devendra Banhart, Feist) are a bit of a stretch. But, I also thought, if this makes fans of Banhart and Feist look to Collins, Baez and Guthrie for some inspiration, who am I to complain?
What's more, let's face it, Fiest and Banhart are talented songwriters. Still, I had to go on the record as wishnig the folks at Vanity Fair had taken some time to check out Old Crow Medicine Show or, heck, even the Little Willies, before they decided to make their call on who's making folk music these days.
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