Timberlane Spotlight: Folk Music Rewind Starts this Fall

Let me start by defining what folk music and folk stories are. Folk music and folk stories go hand in hand. So when I refer to Folk in this conversation, I am referring to both songs and stories. Folk is any song or story passed down by mouth from one generation to the next. It usually changes a bit in meaning and even in lyrics. Sometimes a version of the song will be recorded and published. The same is true for a great story. Here is another way to explain Folk. Folk music is like the Buffalo river. It starts as a single drip of water from a spring and meanders and changes its path creating new tributaries; and flows 150 miles east thru the highest part of the Boston Mountains of the Ozarks and ends at the White River in Buffalo City.

In the same way, folk music begins in a person's heart and is a single thought shared with family, friends, and sometimes at church or social events. The point is we make folk music and keep it moving down the rive of our lives, feeding the family with faith stories and memories that otherwise would be forgotten. And some of these wives' tales and songs sink into our community and define our morals, hopes, and dreams. Folk music is not just in our history; there are men, women, and children making new songs and stories to share today. Folk music swells out of our hearts and souls, our life, our beings. You, you, and you are our folk music and stories of tomorrow. And as long as we share songs and stories with our friends and community, folk music lives on. For generations. Those new songs and stories are born and become like the waters of the Buffalo river. So families, play your fiddle, play your banjo, sing your song and tell your stories to their children and everyone who will listen. Is folk music more than history? Folk music is you. The outward expression of our community and family today. So I want to encourage you to take your sons fishing and tell those family stories. Sit on the porch with and widdle and tell stories of the good old days. Get out the fiddle, the banjo, or that old guitar or the spoons and make folk memories. Maybe one of your sons and daughters will pick right where you left off, and your folk song and your story and memories will flow like a river into the sunset, never to be forgotten. We are always just one generation away from losing our folk music, so keep on singing and a grinning

God Bless America, God Bless the USA.

Thanks, and That's all, folks.

Here is my newest Folk song; chorus only.

I: I Stand

I stand for America

I stand here today for the good old USA. I:

If you want to read some great folk stories, I recommend Benso Fox Book. A local writer from right here in Lelie.

There are great fiddle plays, Folk and Bluegrass event happening all the time. You can go to Leslie happening for more information.

I would love to hear from local musicians, songwriters, and storytellers in our community as we work to put on a Christmas Folk show right here in Leslie. Oh yea, if you are a fiddle player, banjo player, guitarist, or piano player, Folk Music Rewind needs you. If you are an actor or recording/songwriter, I'll need you to contact me for an audition, artists, and musicians. It's time your new and classic folk music is heard here in Leslie. So sign up by texting me Al Timberlane @ 502 353 9036 or emailing me at timberlaneranchstudio@gmail.com. And let me know if you are interested. As soon as I hear from you, we can start the preliminary show. Remember, Folk music depends on you to bring your new songs and stories to Leslie this fall and Christmas.