By the People, For the People

By the People, For the People

In honour of Mr. Bo Diddley, I would like to draw your attention to this article by Burkhard Bilger from the New Yorker about field recordings of American Folk music. I'm not talking about Pete Seager or the Kingston Trio or Bob Dylan, this is music by folks; just regular folks. While some say this tradition of people creating their own music to be passed down through generations is dying, it's also been said that we're witnessing a new YouTube/MySpace tradition of "amateur field recordings". Still, this story and the recordings mentioned are more about the often elusive "authentic". More and more, "authenticity" is what we seek. I'm sure it's one of the reasons so many people travel to destinations like Newfoundland. The only way to eschew packaged tours where thousands of other tourists flock to buy tchotchke made expressly for them is to take a packaged tour where no one cares to make tchotchke (though woolen sweaters can be purchased at the gift shop).

Listen to Burkhard Bilger discuss his article: Click here.