Saturday evening, Mer and I got to go to the wonderful Kent Stage to see John Gorka in concert. John has a great deep baritone voice, plays a mean guitar, and has clever and thoughtful vocals. He also has a good stage presence – he is funny and relaxed and is not afraid to interact with the audience quite a bit. Check out these songs (open with Quicktime) – Land of the Bottom Line (a song about surrendering freedom for security), Raven in the Storm (a song that creates a creepy mood), Let Them In (a song about WW2 soldiers that were killed), and People My Age (a song about getting old and fat). The concert was almost two hours long, and it was great.

Mer and I hung out in the lobby to get to meet John, who was supposed to come out after a few minutes (and he did). What was surreal about waiting was that the street outside the venue was the main place for Kent State students to show off their Halloween costumes. There was an endless stream of young folks in costume roaming up and down both sides of the street. My clear favorite was a guy in a Fred Flintstone costume. In his car. In his foot-powered car. What an awesome costume. It was just a little weird to come out of a concert that was mostly full of 30-somethings and older, and come out into a world of semi-sober costumed college students. I *really* wish I had had my camera.  [Mer’s note – semi-sober and semi-costumed; maybe it’s just as well you didn’t have your camera!]

Folk music is great. I have been a folk nut for about 18 years now, and I have been going to folk concerts for much of that time. Oddly, NE Ohio is a hub of folk music. I get to see as much (or more) folk music here as I did in Chicago. My guess is that 1) Ohio is on the way to everywhere for artists who drive, and 2) WKSU’s folk program is highly regarded. So, we get lots of good folk music coming our way. In fact, the 40th annual Kent State Folk Festival is coming up in two weeks. My favorite part of the Kent State Folk Festival is the **free** workshops that are given on the Saturday of the festival. You can choose what workshop you want to go to, and you can be in a small room with good artists who want to explain what they do. It is much fun.

I love folk music for many reasons. I find the music more interesting than most pop music. The lyrics are usually thoughtful (or at least funny). The instrumentation is great, and the artists care about their art. They obviously want to make a living, but they are not making millions playing music – they really do it because they love it. I also love that folk concerts allow you to be up close and personal – at most concerts I am usually less than 50 feet from the performer. I love that intimacy. I can watch them play the instruments and wonder how they get that much sound out of the instruments. Many of the performers make themselves available before or after the show, or during intermissions. I also love the variety of folk music – it has roots in many cultures. My favorite folk music is heavily Celtic influenced, but I have seen or heard great African music, Klezmer bands, Russian music and more. Folk music has a great diversity in it. Ironically, my least favorite folk music is the “popular” folk music of the 60s – I tend to find it a little irritating (singing slightly off key seems to have been “in” in the 60s). I also prefer songs about people to general protest songs. Give me a good song about farming or breaking up or sailing or escaping the British or wrestling with God or factory work or music or friends or dancing.

It is kind of an odd phenomenon to go and see live music. Why pay $20 to see Gorka, when for $15 I can get a CD and listen whenever I want? I’m not sure. I like having “date nights” with Meredith, so that is part of it. I like getting to see how artists play the instruments, so that is part of it. I like being part of the experience – there is something fun about live music – it is organic. Sometimes the performer will explain why a song was written, and that is enlightening. You often can see the personality of the singer. You get to support them in what they do – I’m pretty sure that they make much of their living by performing concerts. Economically, it does not make perfect sense to go see live music instead of buying CDs, but there you have it. I love live music, and I’ll keep going. I recommend it to you, even if you are a poor college student. Go to music on campus if you can’t afford to go to hear more established artists. Expose yourself to new music (especially if it is free or cheap). You might find music you fall in love with.

Gorka was much fun. I’m looking forward to him coming back in April. Folk music is great, and I love that it comes to me. Folk on, dude!