"So," you're asking yourself, "I wonder exactly what kind of music they play at these Sundilla concerts?" Good question. I could be painfully obvious and simply state "Good music!," but you'd see right through that.

  In a nutshell, almost all of the music you'll hear at Sundilla is characterized as "folk music." To some, that means something you'd sing around a campfire (and what does "Kum Bah Yah" mean anyway?), or Peter, Paul and Mary. But that's not right.

  Even the Folk Alliance has some trouble defining folk music, and with good reason. "Folk music" isn't so much a style of music anymore as it is an umbrella that covers many different styles of music. Bluegrass is folk. Blues is folk. Country is folk. Celtic is folk. World Music is folk. Almost all acoustic music is folk. Anything that can be called "Americana" is folk. In short, anything that can be described as "roots music," "traditional," or that could have been passed down "by folks" is considered folk music.

  If it sounds like almost anything can be considered folk music, you're right. The Music Hound Folk Guide is more than 1,000 pages long, and in it you'll find entries for: Roy Acuff, Etta Baker, Clifton Chenier, Ani DiFranco, The Eagles, Bela Fleck, the Grateful Dead, John Lee Hooker, the Indigo Girls, Robert Johnson, Lucy Kaplansky, Lyle Lovett, Van Morrison, Randy Newman, Phil Ochs, John Prine, Queen Ida Guillory, Bonnie Raitt, Cat Stevens, James Taylor, Uncle Bonsai, Townes Van Zandt, Wilco, the X-Rays, Neil Young, and Zydeco Force. That's just an A to Z list, one example per letter; remember, this book has more than 1,000 pages…

  Other folk sources list even more acts. Dirty Linen Magazine has recently reviewed albums by String Cheese Incident, the Dave Matthews Band, moe, Leftover Salmon, Anoushka Shankar, Bob Marley, Little Feat, Stevie Ray Vaughn… are you starting to get the picture?

  In short, you might not know it, but you probably like, maybe even love, folk music. Oh, maybe not all of it, but probably a lot of your music collection consists of folk. And if you like it without even knowing what it is, think of the possibilities now that you have a (somewhat) better grasp of everything that's under the umbrella with you.

  Be brave. Take a chance. Come to a Sundilla concert. You'll be glad you did. And one day, you'll be able to say "I was a folky, when folky wasn't cool."

Home