JD: Well, the recognition from audiences helps more than a label, I think. That’s when you know something’s working. A label can help get the music to more people. Word of mouth helps a lot, too. You know, you want to grow …
Can I ask you something? What is About.com?
KR: Oh, I’m sorry. I should have filled you in at the get-go. We’re “the experts next door.” So, like, I’m a folksinger, and I’ve spent the last ten years or so touring around and doing the folksinger thing. Now I still do that, but I also work for About, and I populate this Web site with the history of folk and all kinds of information about folksingers and what’s going on in the folk world.
JD: Oh so you’re a songwriter, too?
KR: Yeah.
JD: Sometimes I worry that … I believe I am a folk artist. I talk about current events in a certain way. Or at least more that, than in my mind, personal feelings. Sometimes folk scares people. It scares me sometimes. [We both laugh] Like it’s just a bunch of old people that follow you around, and sometimes it seems to exclude the younger people.
KR: Yeah, I think there’s definitely that feeling in a lot of folk circles, that the kids aren’t really into it these days. But then, I think of people like Iron & Wine and KT Tunstall and these songwriters that are very folk-based. Even like what I do isn’t pure folk music. There isn’t really any pure folk music getting made anymore. At least not from what’s … circulating on CDs and the Internet. Some of the festivals even want to take “folk” out of their name, because nobody can agree what it means anymore.
I think there are still people singing the traditional songs, but … well, Bob Dylan really changed that. He started writing his own songs, and now all of us are trying to write our own songs too. But it’s still folk music. That’s still there, the folk spirit, you know.
JD: Well, yeah. And there’s a convenience in folk music. They can show up to a show and they’ve got a guitar, and … or, and a harmonica. They have that stuff because they can’t afford to carry a band around. It’s a moveable kind of music.
Like, I’d love to write Sinatra songs, but it’s hard to carry around a big band. Folk music is developed that way these days, because it’s portable.
KR: Exactly. Yeah, and that won’t go away.
JD: Nope. Even rock and pop music is talking about issues of the day now, and that’s folk music, too.
KR: But at the same time. it’s just kind of sad to see that less of the kids … less people are singing the old traditional songs.
JD: Jack Elliot’ll keep them alive. There’s a story for you. You know, I grew up listening to Jack. He’s a real hero. Then I was discovered by him years later. The same thing happened with [Tom] Waits.
You know, if you follow this thing ... this world wants you to have what you want, as long as it’s good-natured.
