The New Weave

Thirty years ago, Bob Dylan's first record came out. Dylan drew on influences that far preceded his young 20 years. He picked up the talkin' blues and gospel from the South and hillbilly music from Appalachia, all the while reinterpreting and recreating the songs as only he could.

Since that epochal moment three decades ago, the idiom popularized as "folk music" has gone through several transformations. But through it all, it still remains true to its roots as its practitioners weave influences carried down through the generations.

One has only to think of artists such as Suzanne Vega or Nanci Griffith to hear early Joan Baez. The protest songs of Billy Bragg echo the indignation of Pete Seeger. And a group popular a few years ago, the Washington Squares, were dead ringers for Peter, Paul, and Mary.

These contemporary sounds have been categorized as "urban folk," or as one disc jockey called it, "the new weave." While the phrase refers to the seminal folk group The Weavers, it also reflects the variety of styles and influences woven throughout the music of today's singer/songwriters.

Windham Hill, a record label well known for its ambient sounds, is carrying the torch of folk music with its vocal label, High Street Records. With a roster of artists who are primarily singer/songwriters, founder Will Ackerman is giving exposure to artists who might normally be relegated to smaller, more obscure record labels.

In the past few years, High Street has featured three artists who have garnered critical acclaim for both their recorded work and their live performances. John Gorka, Patty Larkin, and Pierce Pettis share more in common than just recording for the same record company. They all write from an intensely personal perspective. Each of their records is a document of everyday lifeits successes and failures, its joy and despair - in other words, the essence of folk music.

JOHN GORKA characterizes himself as "darkly optimistic." On Jack's Crows, he chronicled the daily life of his home in New Jersey as well as life in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Temporary Road, his 1992 release, is broader in perspective, encompassing topics such as the Gulf war and fascism in America, yet it still retains the same love of language, the play on words.

Gorka's voice, both singing and creative, is comparable to his influences Jim Croce and Stan Rogers. He writes with dark sarcasm and sometimes with a certain bemusement. While he writes both personal and political songs, he is never heavy-handed in his delivery.

His songs are a reflection of places and people. On both albums the characters are often displaced not by their choice but by powers bigger than themselves. On "Where the Bottles Break" (Jack's Crow), Gorka sees his neighborhood changed by gentrification: "They turned biker bars into flower shops....It happens when the money comes/The wild and poor get pushed aside." He goes on to point an accusing finger. "Money talks and people jump/Ask how high Donald what's his name/And who cares/I don't wanna know what his girlfriend doesn't wear."

Gorka's skill with words isn't his only talent. Both albums feature his stellar acoustic guitar work along with a host of other musicians, including Nanci Griffith and Shawn Colvin on background vocals, who create quietly understated music.

Listening to Patty Larkin gives us a sense of where the new folk music is headed. The winner of seven Boston music awards, Larkin is, as one writer put it, "a complete performer."

Like Gorka (who contributes background vocals on Larkin's Tango), she writes introspective songs filled with humor and pathos. Her voice, comparable to early Joni Mitchell or Nanci Griffith, covers a range of emotions from anger about injustice to pain over a failed relationship. She also displays a slightly skewed sense of humor in songs such as "Dave's Holiday" which, in Larkin's words, provides a "mental break" from the rest of the album.

While it is not as though a "mental break" is needed, her songs are serious without being melodramatic. On "Metal Drums" Larkin documents corporate mismanagement in an environmental disaster at Holbrook, Massachusetts. "Seemed like the kiss of death hung in the air/When a whole town found out they'd been poisoned for years."

Tango provides a fine showcase for Larkin's ability both as songwriter and musician. The arrangements are spare and taut with her work on her 1946 Martin D-18 coming to the fore. Joined by Brian MacLeod on drums and Richard Gates on bass, Larkin creates sad, beautiful images that carry a haunting resonance.

THE PHOTOGRAPH on the back of Pierce Pettis' Tinseltown shows him standing against a concrete wall with his head cast downward. In a way, this is illustrative of Pettis' music. His voice is quiet and expressive with a hint of things not said, ideas unexpressed.

"I think a songwriter can express a collective consciousness," Pettis says. "I don't approach songwriting in terms of politics but in terms of right and wrong, basic human relationships."

Produced by Mark Heard (see "A Tribute to One Who Knew 'The Best Thing,'" December 1992), Tinseltown is pared-down acoustic folk-rock with an edge. Like T Bone Burnett, Pettis is a moralist in the sense that his songs do look at right and wrong - a long, hard look. Consider, for example, the title track which closes the album: "Home of the homeless/Free of the land/Who've lost their farms and houses/To the banker's sleight of hand/Businessmen in German cars/Talking on telephones/While downtown at the shelter/Children eat from metal bowls."

Like Gorka and Larkin, Pettis' songs are also very personal. The birth of his son is chronicled in "Little Man," and a portrait of his grandmother's life as an unknown poet is painted in "Grandmother's Song."

With his roots in the South, Pettis draws on a variety of musical and literary influences ranging from U2 to Leadbelly, Flannery O'Connor to Eudora Welty. Tinseltown reflects this broad range of influences. African percussion, a didgeridoo, as well as mandolin and autoharp combine to create a rich tapestry of musical sounds. However, because of Mark Heard's production, all of this only serves to augment the vocals and highlight Pettis' lyrics.

Three artists, three visions. And yet, to borrow the title of another great folk album, theirs is a vision shared. Weaving together thoughtful lyrics and observations with simple yet elegant music is characteristic of all of their music. And throughout each of their songs, there is something intensely personal, which is what makes folk music, then and now, so precious and vital.

Ron Wall was a free-lance writer living in Calgary, Alberta when this review appeared.

A Tribute to One Who Knew "The Best Thing"

Mark Heard, 1952-1992

Unfortunately, not many people have heard the music of Mark Heard. In his 15-year career as an artist, he released 12 albums and worked with artists such as T Bone Burnett, Pierce Pettis, and Sam Phillips. While his music received critical acclaim from musicians and reviewers alike, he worked in relative obscurity. He died on August 16, 1992, after suffering two heart attacks in July. He is survived by his wife, Janet, and their 4-year-old daughter, Rebecca. Mark Heard was 40.

Much of his music is difficult to locate. Many of the older titles are out of print and his more recent work is distributed through either his record label, Fingerprint Records, or through record stores that specialize in gospel music.

Mark Heard embodied the new folk music. His influences came from the blues, cajun, country, and Southern rock. His lyrics are filled with hope and joy, despair and sadness. Like the late Raymond Carver, what Heard didn't say was as important as what he did say. His is a world beat sung with a world-weary soul. But running throughout his music is the mystery of redemption, or as Bruce Cockburn called it, the thrust of grace.

Heard's most endearing and sure to be most enduring work is the triumvirate of Dry Bones Dance, Second Hand, and, just released this past spring, Satellite Sky. The music is well crafted and the lyrics well thought out. Nowhere is this better characterized than in the song "Love Is Not the Only Thing" from Second Hand (Fingerprint Records, 1991).

"Love it not the only thing/It's the best thing/Love is not everything/But it's the best thing."

-RW

Jack's Crows. By John Gorka. High Street Records. 1991.

Tango. By Patty Larkin. High Street Records. 1991.

Temporary Road. By John Gorka. High Street Records. 1992.

Tinseltown. By Pierce Pettis. High Street Records. 1991.