on folk and country

So it's been a while. I hope everyone had a great holiday. My only New Year's goal is to average one blog post per week, so here we go...

There's been this disturbance in my psyche over the past few weeks. I can't figure out the difference between "folk" music and "country" music. To some people this may seem dreadfully unimportant or, at best, esoteric. I've spent a lot of time thinking about this, however, but to no avail.

It all started when I imported a new CD into my iTunes program. Steve Earle's Washington Square Serenade. (This is an excellent album, by the way. Maybe I'll start a new blog of music recommendations. Would anyone out there read it??) So when I imported the songs, I glanced at the genre iTunes (or, more precisely, the Gracenote CDDB) attached to the songs: Country. Now, I also have Steve Earle's first album - Guitar Town - which I would have no trouble classifying as "country." Perhaps this is because I grew up hearing the title track on the Birmingham country stations. The only other song of Earle's that I know well is "Copperhead Road," which I might also call "country," though a little less comfortably.

But in my little brain, the categories are worlds apart. I listen to lots of "folk" music, while I usually skip through my local country stations even more quickly than the rap stations. (My tolerance for rap has actually increased a lot since I moved to Detroit. It's not my favorite genre by a long shot, but I've become a bit more interested in it. Funny how your surroundings impact your musical tastes.) Anyway, so this iTunes-generated shock led me to look at the other "folk" musicians I have in my library... Gillian Welch? Country. Lucinda Williams? Country. Alison Krauss? Country. k.d. lang? Country. Yo-Yo Ma? Country. (Yes, but only for the Appalachian Journey album he did with Mark O'Connor and Edgar Meyer...Just had to make sure you're still paying attention, lol.) NOOOOOO! These are not "country"! I love them - how can they be "country"?!

Of course, I also love the country music that I grew up with: George Strait, Clint Black, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Alabama (naturally!), etc. And no matter how hard I try, I can't get Carrie Underwood's "Before He Cheats" out of my head. But country and folk aren't interchangeable categories, right? I mean, would anyone really call Bob Dylan or Woody Guthrie "country"?!

In all fairness to iTunes, "folk" is a well-populated category: James Taylor, Indigo Girls, Dar Williams (though I have seen her categorized as "country" elsewhere), Peter Paul and Mary, etc. But they also categorize music as "folk" that I would have considered something else. A lot of my "world music" is labeled "folk." Rocco DeLuca & The Burden is a definite "blues" for me. I also think of Tracy Chapman as a "blues rock" artist. But they're both in the "folk" category. What a mess!

I've tried to discuss this topic with a number of people, most of whom say something to the effect of "That's interesting..." which, of course, often means "Yeah, Rachel, that's not at all interesting." But while I was back in Alabama over the holidays I had this conversation with a couple of my high school friends who, I might add, were also kind enough to introduce me to Guitar Hero. Oh, wow! We weren't able to come to any definite conclusion, but we discussed the following points:

- "old" and "new" country are very different from each other, as are "old" and "new" folk - this muddies the waters a lot

- both old folk and old country seem to have roots in the poor, populist American tradition (I'm thinking about the Depression era particularly, though it's older than that)

- world music seems to have a much bigger place in folk than in country - country may be a peculiarly Southern US phenomenon - but this could lead to a discussion about country vs. bluegrass vs. blues...

- a related point is that American folk music seems to incorporate experiences of the American West and North in ways that country doesn't - or maybe it's a matter of urban and rural experiences?

- there doesn't seem to be a big difference in instruments or tonality, although new country probably uses a more "electrified" sound

As the incurable internet research hound that I am, I had to see what Google could find on the topic. Here are a few relevant online discussions:

http://http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/481266

http://http://www.guitars101.com/forums/f77/folk-and-country-music-29503.html

This is probably the best one - it's from a songwriters' forum:
http://http://www.songwriterforums.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=2438

So, yeah. Country and folk. The same but different...

Happy New Year to all!