Review of _Deep Community_ by Scott Alarik

Date: Tue, 08 Apr 2003 03:07:01 GMT
Newsgroups: rec.music.folk
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Review of _Deep Community_ by Scott Alarik
Cambridge, MA; Black Wolf Press <www.blackwolfpress.com>
Scott Alarik is, among other things, a great writer. His new
collection of pieces from the last ten years of his career as a writer
for the Boston Globe and Sing Out! magazine is not only a wonderful
kaleidoscope of sketches of musicians that have passed through Boston
in that time; it's also a record of the continuing dialogue between
those musicians and the communities that sustain them and are in turn
enriched by them. As such, it gives clues as to how the dialogue might
continue, and why it's important that it do so.
There are plenty of interesting conversations in this book, with
musicians familiar to fans of the contemporary singer-songwriter
movement, of bluegrass and country music, of blues, of Celtic music,
of traditional American and British music, and of other folk and pop
genres. Because Boston has been such a hotbed of all these musics,
given the wide proliferation here of grassroots venues, a base here
has given Scott street credibility to talk about music on an
international scale. He has a great ear for listening to why people do
what they do, whether they be traveling musicians, dancers, community
coffeehouse organizers, agents, feminist impresarios, theatrical
producers, or indie record company people. Throughout the book is a
calm sense of both the marginal nature of most of our enterprises, and
the true value of what happens within these margins. Whatever happens
to music and culture after their encounter with the corporate music
industry, music and culture start in communities that love and need
music that deals in real lives as they are led, and love and need it
enough to support it without recompense. Scott's sense that these
communities are interesting and enjoyable places for both audiences
and artists pervades the book. Folk music, to Scott and to most of the
folks with whom he talks, is not the minor leagues of the music
industry. It is the real culture of which most of the corporate
industry's product is only a dim and distorted mirror. Buy a copy of
this book for anyone you know who thinks that folk music is about
Kumbayah in the '60s--at the least, they'll have a great read and the
visual treat of many fine photos by Robert Corwin. Beyond that,
though, they just might get their first insight into what musical
culture begins to look like as commercial radio becomes less and less
relevant, the Internet becomes more important, and the corporate music
industry collapses.
I'm not sure if this is a disclaimer or a testimony: I've known Scott
for many years, and my name pops up a couple of times in the book. The
testimony side is, each time Scott has interviewed me, he's gotten it
right, and truly conveyed what I had to say at the time. That happens
less often than you might think in music journalism; in my experience,
it's the mark of a truly intelligent individual who both knows and
loves what he's writing about. Scott's the real deal, and in _Deep
Community_ he documents and honors the skill, passion and commitment
that has made folk music in its diverse splendor a treasure to a lot
of human beings.
Bob Franke
email-address-deleted
http://www.bobfranke.com