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Old 07-15-2007, 10:30 PM   #36
betterway86
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Join Date: Jul 2007
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I've missed out on a recent chance to see Dylan and regret I hadn't made more of an effort.

Last year he performed at the Peace concert in the city of Donastia, Euskadi (the Basque Country in Northern Spain). Also performing there -Mikel Laboa, my favorite Basque folk singer -he's the most popular contemporary folk singer/songwriter in Euskadi or perhaps even Euskal Herria ('Land of the people who speak Eskera [Basque]')for that matter.

I was surprised to have read that there were 80,000 in attendance!

These performers, and including Gordon Lightfoot, are living icons in their perspective countries (or in the case of Euskadi..an autonomous region)and beyond.

Mikel is a very important part of the current cultural movement in Euskadi, and the youth are a huge part of all this. That's just not happening right now with Dylan in the USA and Lightfoot in CA...although I'd imagine the Canadian Idol has opened up the door for a new generation of fans.

But Dylan and Lightfoot et al., have been that for us in our youth (for those of us who are 'older' now). So of course there's a nostalgia there for us, as well as a love and respect for the music together with the times.

Our youth need to be guided in order to experience the music, etc., they need to be exposed to it of course.

At my son's high school graduation a couple of years ago...which was held at the Jorgensen Auditorium (GL's been there!) all us parents, were really excited about seeing Peter Tork! He was the commencement speaker..the class valedictoriam introduced him as one of the "Fab Four"!

We got a laugh out of that one and Peter was both flattered and flabbergasted!

Seriously though, I've always felt strongly about having my son listen and understand all types of music. From the time he was a toddler...well he was at the Newport Folk Festival in 1991? I've taken him to any concert that I reasonably could...even my favorite band of all time, Traffic!

The last time we went to a concert together, was last Novemeber at Jorgensen...we went to see "Woody's boy", Arlo. Well it was Arlo and family..his son on drums, and his daughter has a beautiful voice. Her husbands' singing voice sounds very Neil Youngish...and being a huge Neil fan, I got a kick out of that.

I think my son was the only teenager there...except for the ushers!

Oooops I didn't mean to write so much! Anyway, there's ups and downs to having a kid who likes a variety of music and that which mirrors my own. Like I'll be looking for one of MY CD's...he thinks because we like the same music, that these are 'ours'. Well I really don't mind, except for those times I'm scrambling around lokking for a CD that I'm intent on playing.

And of course it can be a bit embarassing to be out in public with your kid when he decides to start singing "Dust Bowl Refugee". People look at you real funny. But when they do, I'll just start singing along and maybe break into 'Pretty Boy Floyd'.

Oh! I mentioned Woody because of Dylan...since Dylan was so heavily influenced by Woody. And even for those folk singer/songwriters who don't consider Woody a large influence, they've learned alot from Woody's and many others experiences, when it comes to protecting and controlling their work. For those of you who never heard of that - the songs Woody wrote (and recordings, etc) with funds commissioned by the WPA, were consider as 'works for hire' and owned by the US Government. After awhile, I think Woody just didn't give a dem.
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