I am currently working on an essay in images on some of of the less agreeable kinds human behavior, like betrayal, jealousy, murder and rape. The story and text were distilled out of several old folk ballads, that have intrigued and inspired me for years. I'd like to share this quote from a very interesting interview with folk singer Martin Carthy, who probably knows these songs better than anyone and has been singing them all of his life:
"The older I have got, the more the songs have become three-dimensional.
They're not words set to pretty tunes. You are being told something
about people. Things that are wicked, naughty, true, funny. About what
human beings do to each other, and it never changes. Folk music, says
Carthy, "is not an archive. If you see it as that, it becomes like a
butterfly in a glass case. Folk music has to live and breathe. I'm not
interested in heritage – this stuff is alive, we must claim it, use it."
And that's what I am trying to do with my new book, Far-el-dy-well.
You can find the interview
here.
