TUE., JULY 31, 2007
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A User's Guide to Old Town School of Folk Music
by Keith Harris
Folk music has never been a fixed entity. It’s a process, the means by which individual musicians pass down songs and styles, one to another, throughout the years. Like the music itself, this process has evolved over time, especially after technology enabled performers to learn from recordings rather than specific mentors. And since 1957, the Old Town School of Folk Music has forged some valuable links in that evolutionary chain, not the least of which is its Songbook, a textbook from which the Chicago organization’s students could learn landmark songs of that tradition.
Now, the Old Town School has once more redefined the folk process for a contemporary age, gathering friends of the school and its teachers, musicians both well- and lesser-known, to record a huge chunk of the Songbook’s titles. The result is called (duh) the Old Town School of Folk Music Songbook, and the series already runs to three titles.
Much like the folk tradition, the idea of the Songbooks also evolved over time. “The project went through different transformations,” explains Bob Medich, who produced the series and has worked at the Old Town School since 1992. “Its first inklings were probably like eight years ago.” The original recording was envisioned as all-star project that would enlist the likes of Bruce Springsteen. Admits Medich, “Our reach exceeded our grasp.”
In fact, however, the School’s recording history goes back further than that, says Mark Dvorak. The multi-instrumentalist folk musician has taught at the Old Town School for 20 years, and in that time he’s seen the school transform from “basically a storefront non-profit to a full-fledged member of the Chicago arts community."
Initially, the school turned to recording for pedagogical purposes. “In the 1960s some of the original founders of the school recorded an LP called Compendium, for students to hear the melodies,” says Dvorak, who contributes “Oh Mary Don’t You Weep” to the third volume of the Songbook. “It was a strange collection — a double album with 75 tracks, each one-verse, one-chorus.”
But it wasn’t until the Old Town School approached its fiftieth anniversary that the idea for the current recordings started to float around. The Old Town School had just finished recording Wiggleworms Love You, a children’s album, and Bloodshot Records, Chicago’s seminal “insurgent country” label, agreed to release it. After talking with Bloodshot owner Rob Miller, Medich returned to the idea of recording the Songbook. At the same time, John Abbey, an Old Town teacher on staff brought into the School his Pro Tools set-up — what Medich calls “a sort of a studio without a home.” This confluence of events led to the long-delayed creation of the Songbook series.
If Volume 1 was frontloaded with bigger names such as Jon Langford and Robbie Fulks, the latter two volumes allow the school’s teachers to shine. It also introduced to the Old Town fold several new artists, even if they had familiar names Abbey flew out to New York to record two young pedigreed musicians — Willie’s daughter Amy Nelson and Woody’s daughter Cathy Guthrie — who harmonize perfectly on “Wildwood Flower.” And they’re not the only second generation interpreters — Mose’s daughter Amy Allison contributes her own plaintive take on “Shenandoah.”
But the album’s standout tracks originate from a little closer to home: Chicago indie rockers the Zincs contribute an eerie, electronic take on “Simple Gifts,” an old Shaker hymn used by Aaron Copland in the Martha Graham ballet Appalachian Spring. “We're not toeing the folk music line,” says Medich. “There are folk purists who say, ‘This is the way Pete Seeger did it, this is the way it’s got to be done.’ We're going to go with the unusual and expected.”
In fact, Medich argues, transforming the styles is an effective way of preserving the songs themselves, “If these songs are presented in their normal manner, in a style that’s typical for performance, the song can go past you, cause you're hearing the genre, you're not hearing the song,” he says.
With the release of volumes 2 & 3 in the series, most of the original Songbook titles have now been recorded. “We didn't get to all of them — we’d have to do another CD,” Medich explains, “and that would mean I would have to jump off the Michigan Avenue Bridge.” But the Old Town School hasn’t quite exhausted its storehouse of recorded material career. Medich says there are plans for another children’s record next year, and there are also 50 years of concert recordings in the archive awaiting the proper time and format for release.
Given the developments in technology, Dvorak notes, folk music has to change too — and the new technology may even help it to thrive. “There are lots of people out there with empty iPods,” he says, “and they need to fill them some way or another.”
Now, the Old Town School has once more redefined the folk process for a contemporary age, gathering friends of the school and its teachers, musicians both well- and lesser-known, to record a huge chunk of the Songbook’s titles. The result is called (duh) the Old Town School of Folk Music Songbook, and the series already runs to three titles.
Much like the folk tradition, the idea of the Songbooks also evolved over time. “The project went through different transformations,” explains Bob Medich, who produced the series and has worked at the Old Town School since 1992. “Its first inklings were probably like eight years ago.” The original recording was envisioned as all-star project that would enlist the likes of Bruce Springsteen. Admits Medich, “Our reach exceeded our grasp.”
In fact, however, the School’s recording history goes back further than that, says Mark Dvorak. The multi-instrumentalist folk musician has taught at the Old Town School for 20 years, and in that time he’s seen the school transform from “basically a storefront non-profit to a full-fledged member of the Chicago arts community."
Initially, the school turned to recording for pedagogical purposes. “In the 1960s some of the original founders of the school recorded an LP called Compendium, for students to hear the melodies,” says Dvorak, who contributes “Oh Mary Don’t You Weep” to the third volume of the Songbook. “It was a strange collection — a double album with 75 tracks, each one-verse, one-chorus.”
But it wasn’t until the Old Town School approached its fiftieth anniversary that the idea for the current recordings started to float around. The Old Town School had just finished recording Wiggleworms Love You, a children’s album, and Bloodshot Records, Chicago’s seminal “insurgent country” label, agreed to release it. After talking with Bloodshot owner Rob Miller, Medich returned to the idea of recording the Songbook. At the same time, John Abbey, an Old Town teacher on staff brought into the School his Pro Tools set-up — what Medich calls “a sort of a studio without a home.” This confluence of events led to the long-delayed creation of the Songbook series.
If Volume 1 was frontloaded with bigger names such as Jon Langford and Robbie Fulks, the latter two volumes allow the school’s teachers to shine. It also introduced to the Old Town fold several new artists, even if they had familiar names Abbey flew out to New York to record two young pedigreed musicians — Willie’s daughter Amy Nelson and Woody’s daughter Cathy Guthrie — who harmonize perfectly on “Wildwood Flower.” And they’re not the only second generation interpreters — Mose’s daughter Amy Allison contributes her own plaintive take on “Shenandoah.”
But the album’s standout tracks originate from a little closer to home: Chicago indie rockers the Zincs contribute an eerie, electronic take on “Simple Gifts,” an old Shaker hymn used by Aaron Copland in the Martha Graham ballet Appalachian Spring. “We're not toeing the folk music line,” says Medich. “There are folk purists who say, ‘This is the way Pete Seeger did it, this is the way it’s got to be done.’ We're going to go with the unusual and expected.”
In fact, Medich argues, transforming the styles is an effective way of preserving the songs themselves, “If these songs are presented in their normal manner, in a style that’s typical for performance, the song can go past you, cause you're hearing the genre, you're not hearing the song,” he says.
With the release of volumes 2 & 3 in the series, most of the original Songbook titles have now been recorded. “We didn't get to all of them — we’d have to do another CD,” Medich explains, “and that would mean I would have to jump off the Michigan Avenue Bridge.” But the Old Town School hasn’t quite exhausted its storehouse of recorded material career. Medich says there are plans for another children’s record next year, and there are also 50 years of concert recordings in the archive awaiting the proper time and format for release.
Given the developments in technology, Dvorak notes, folk music has to change too — and the new technology may even help it to thrive. “There are lots of people out there with empty iPods,” he says, “and they need to fill them some way or another.”
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