[wordup] Folk Music Back in Parlors, with High-Tech Twist

[Adam Shand]

This is *really* cool.

From: http://abcnews.go.com/wire/SciTech/reuters20030203_77.html

Folk Music Back in Parlors, with High-Tech Twist
Feb. 3
By Diane Bartz

TAKOMA PARK, Md. (Reuters) - Folk music was born on front porches and
parlors and now it has returned in a big way -- with a little help from
the Internet.

On a recent Saturday night in this Washington suburb, about three dozen
people pack the home of Sherri and Richard Weil.

Concert-goers bring the chips, dip and beer. A basket is set out for the
suggested $10 to $12 donation for the musicians, and the living room,
dining room and family room are filled with people wanting to hear folk
music.

With few venues willing to hire folk acts and few middle-class
suburbanites willing to make the schlep downtown, search out parking and
elbow other patrons to get the bartender's attention, folk house
concerts are quietly spreading like wildfire with the help of e-mail and
Internet advertising.

On this particular night, there are two acts. Up first are inexperienced
and sometimes tentative singer/songwriters Rick Dahl and Audrey Morris,
who play original and cover songs. They are followed by the more
polished Tom Espinola on guitar and Kristen Jones on steel pans, who do
mostly traditional music.

The musicians play on a small stage in part of the kitchen. The audience
sits one step down on borrowed folding chairs in what is usually the
family room.

The largely 50-something audience listens intently and happily sings
along when asked. There's no cash register ringing and no espresso
machine hissing. Other than music, the only noise is the family dog's
single burst of barking.

In other words, it's perfect for the serious music lover.

"It's great music two blocks from the house," said Kathy Dorman, a
historian at the Smithsonian Institution. "I don't drink that much and I
hate smoke. And in bars, people are talking and drinking and not paying
attention."

And house concerts give musicians badly needed income.

"Folk music isn't all that lucrative. When you're starting out, a lot of
places don't pay at all," said Morris, whose top paycheck for a gig has
been in the $100 to $200 range.

'INTERNET A BOON'

Music has always been played in homes -- think of parties that people
would hold in Harlem to raise money to pay the rent -- but it is
difficult if not impossible to determine where house concerts first
appeared.

Mary Cliff, a disc jockey for public radio station WETA who specializes
in Washington's folk scene, said they dated back to folk clubs of the 1960s.

If a bar or coffeehouse couldn't or wouldn't host a particular
performer, someone would offer to host the event, collect some money and
give most, if not all, to the performers, she said.

The difference is that now with e-mail lists, it costs little or nothing
to advertise a house concert to hundreds of people. Sending out a note
to a so-called list serve of people who share a common interest is
considerably easier and reaches many more people than stapling fliers to
telephone poles.

"The Internet has been a boon," says Cliff, who adds: "It's (house
concerts) always been around, in and out within the folk community."

An Internet search of the term "house concert" produces 15,900 hits.

FROM FLORIDA TO CALIFORNIA

A quick flip through the first couple dozen turns up advertisements for
folk concerts in living rooms in California, Florida, Illinois,
Maryland, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and Washington state. The trend
does not seem to be duplicated by musical styles other than folk.

Weil said he started hosting house concerts during a mid-life crisis.

"I just was missing music. As much as we can, we go to other house
concerts but we thought 'Hey, why don't we hold our own house
concerts,"' he said. "This is just a fun thing to do."

Scott Moore, a Washington Post editor, first heard of a house concert 15
years ago and has been hosting them in his suburban Maryland home since
1997. Like most people who host the concerts, he was looking for a way
to hear his favorite singer/songwriters.

Moore says he spends $40 per show on snacks. "There is wear and tear on
the house. You have to replace carpeting and paint more often than usual
because you have more people coming through, but it's the cost of your
hobby," he said.

One important point he makes is that people who hold house concerts
should make sure that the money collected is a "suggested donation"
instead of a cover charge, which would turn the concert into a business
and be illegal in residentially zoned areas.

But Weil's neighbors don't complain about the events, they attend. "It's
in the neighborhood. You don't have to drive, you don't need a
designated driver," said Peter Weiss, a lawyer who lives near the Weil
family.

Or, as another neighbor, Martin Lowery said: "We'll be home by 10 and in
bed by 10:15."