Viva Lewes Issue #147 December 2018

ON THIS MONTH: MUSIC
Bruce Molsky
US folk legend hits Lewes
Photo by Gary Alter
What is it that first drew you to folk music?
My very first exposure to old time mountain
music was Doc Watson’s first LP, which my sister
gave me for my eleventh birthday. I was just
learning to play guitar, and pretty much locked
myself in my room until I could pluck out Doc’s
Black Mountain Rag. That led me to the fiddle
and banjo, and I was totally hooked. There was
something in old time music that just seemed to
speak directly to me: it woke me up to a whole,
other world I knew nothing about.
As a young person, too, there was a romantic
notion around it – hearing music conceived of
and played by “regular” people. It resonated, and
made me want to do it. Old time and bluegrass
music was popular on the radio in New York
City in the late 1960s – thanks to the influence
the Folk Revival was having on all pop music of
that era – and I just started listening and absorbing.
Eventually I moved south myself, to be
closer to the source of the music, the old players
and the rural southern culture. It was all very
exotic for a city boy, and exciting.
What’s the essence of ‘folk music’, for you?
When it works right, it draws people together
in the most positive and uplifting kind of way.
A good song brings the human condition right
out in the open in a way nothing else really can.
We can look at ourselves, our strengths, our
foibles, our whole lives. Even after all this time
listening and playing, I’m still moved by a lot of
what I hear, and it makes me want to keep doing
it myself.
I see from Wikipedia, folk music is related, at
root, to folklore: is this connection important
to you? And if so, how? I think that, in order
to appreciate any kind of music, there has to
be appreciation of the culture and times it grew
out of. I didn’t grow up in the southern mountains,
so it doesn’t evoke the kind of nostalgia
or cultural identity it might for someone who
did. But my own early interest in the music led
me to that culture – a culture which is unique
and beautiful, and for which I have deep respect.
Many of us who came to this music from the
outside have had the same experience: playing
and researching the music continues to be a sort
of music-based cultural education, for me.
What is it about making music, for you? It’s
all about telling a story, expressing a mood or
emotion, just cutting loose and being alive. Playing
and singing was not optional for me: from
the moment I first picked up an instrument, I
had no choice but to do it! The biggest thrill is
when my fiddling and singing (and guitar and
banjo playing) moves someone else. I live for
those moments. Interview by Charlotte Gann
Bruce Molsky is playing at the Lewes Saturday
Folk Club, on 8th December, at The Elephant and
Castle, 8pm-11pm, £8
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