Folk music. I’ve always liked to listen to it but I am far from an aficionado. Part of my affinity rests in my childhood. Certainly I am not a child of the sixties, I was too young to claim that. But I do remember the music. I was drawn to a young Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and older artists like Woody Guthrie. It must have soaked into my soul.
I have season tickets to the Lied Center in Lawrence. I bought the folk music series that beckon me out of my easy chair periodically to go to the Pavilion at the Lied. I went last night to hear an artist (Lucy Kaplansky) that I had never heard. The short of it is this: I was blown away by her artistry and reminded why folk music connects to my heart.
The musicianship would have been enough to have made for a fantastic evening. She is a fabulous guitar and mandolin player. But it was the lyrics that drew me completely into the moment. Better, it was the story behind the lyrics. If music has a connection to literature, it is because both come from a place of authentic struggle. Sometimes the struggle has a happy ending but more profoundly, often there is no resolution, just emotion. Raw emotion.
Last night I heard songs that ranged from a story about a bar where she met her husband, to stories about her daughter, a friend who disappeared due to an unresolved disagreement, and her dog who loved to look at the moon at night. I found myself suspended from time and place as I was invited into the mystery of life, love, friendship and ambiguity. I felt love, anger, joy and hope. I felt life.
I would recommend you follow Lucy on social media. Listen to her music. Perhaps, like me, you will be drawn into the mystery we call life and emerge changed. Lucy Kaplansky is an artist worth hearing. I was challenged and encouraged and left a different person than I was when I arrived.
Lucy can be found on FaceBook at LucyKaplansky. Com
Until next time,
DP