It seems that last month, we inadvertently published an article by Larry Rosenfeld (Ramblings), without permission or acknowledgement that had been posted on his site. The article should have be been credited to The Israel Folk Community http://groups.yahoo.com/group/israelfolkcommunity

Hello there, I'm back after an enforced absence from these pages. And even though nobody missed me, I'll tell you what happened. My hard drive failed. (For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, that's a computer failure. My own hard drive is.) Well we won't talk about that. Before it, the hard drive that is, failed, I managed to back up the important data. I ordered a new hard disc. My friend came and installed it. While I was restoring the data to it, it died. Totally. I had to order a new one. It took a couple of weeks to arrive. My friend came and installed it. A couple of days later, as I was restoring data to it, it died. Totally! Stop laughing. Finally, I located the company, which now covers the warranty from the company which sold the darn thing to me and then went bankrupt. So here I am, over a month later, way behind in work and just getting over being amazingly flustered. And all the time the people are saying: "when are you going to write another editorial. People miss you! Sure they do!

So I went about casting about in my scrambled brain trying to think of something relevant to say. And then it hit me! Good old divine inspiration, or whatever. For you see, I realized that I am not alone. Whether we like it or not, we have all become psychologically and physically dependent on computers. So I'm telling you something you didn't know already. But did you ever stop to realize the profound impact these critters are having on the very folk music we all love. Let's stop and analyze.

Take these here folk notes for instance. I am sitting here, writing this master- piece using a wonderful computer (which I almost threw across the room) using sophisticated adaptive technology, which affords a blind person access to Microsoft Word, among other things. I am going to e-mail it to Carol. She is going to put the issue together, getting pieces from folks all over the world, via e-mail. She will e-mail it to Sherry who will edit it and send it back to Carol who will get it to the printer. Do you all remember how we used to do all of that! I've forgotten already.

But that's just one aspect. Think about the internet. If I wish to sing a long forgotten song at a folk club, and I can't remember the words to the fifty-sixth verse, I can search for it on the net, with a variety of search engines, in an incredible amount of sources. In next to no time I can have the words in a file on my hard drive, (I don't want to talk about hard drives any more) or even in Braille if I so choose.

But there's more. You can locate music on the internet and "download" it to your computer. This is one of the ways Sandy Cash, among others, finds material. Indeed, a tremendous number of sites are to be found on the net dealing with folk music in general, and with specific artists in particular. These sites contain anything and everything from biographical information to actual video and sound clips, not to mention photos and other goodies.

For instance, Jackie Carlyle is playing at this year's Jacob's Ladder festival. Who? Yeah, that's right! What does she do? What does she sing? Carol looked her up on the internet, and I listened to actual clips of her music. The net is a great, indeed an essential way to publicize artists and music. It is also a great way to sell music. A variety of sites exists where people can actually "upload" material and place it for all the world to hear. If you so wish, you can actually buy a copy of your favorite artist with a credit card. There are those who might hesitate to do this, but more people are doing it all the time.

Most of you are surely aware how technology has affected the popularizing of recording music. It is becoming more affordable for individuals to make and distribute their own recordings without mortgaging one's mother-in-law. One example! Recently members of our own Dulcimer society made a major appearance on Network A (Reshet Aleph) of Israel Radio. They asked me to record them and make a compact disk of the recording for use on the program. To do this, I utilized a "mini disk" Player, which is a little recording device which produces digital recordings on a little floppy disk. I transferred the material to my, (deep breath) hard drive in the form of ".wav" files which were easily transferred on to a CD. And there you are. A stereo recording of the Dulcimer people to have and to hold forever. And that is truly amazing: an old traditional music stored for posterity using the newest of technologies.

-- Larry Gamliel

Katy Moffatt: Recipe for a Good Concert: February 2, Encinitas, California

You take a bit of Judi Lewis, a bit of Shelley Ellen, a measure of Marianna and stir them all together with Emmy Lou Harris and you get an outstanding performance by Katy Moffatt alone with her guitar. She's an all-round performer who can move comfortably from Cole Porter to Leadbelly to Johnny Cash to traditional with ease and panache. She got her first guitar because listening to Beatles and rock on the radio at midnight when she was 13 Her Mom didn't particularly like or allow this genre so she secretly set an alarm to wake up. Her first recordings with Columbia Records in the 70's were categorized as "country- pop" but she could equally be called an outstanding ballad singer and maybe she really defies categorization.

Her guitar seemed almost to be someone with whom she was dancing as she played. She's a north Texas girl with that gentle twang and her expressiveness as a singer glues you to hear the lyrics and make sense of them. She's inside every song. She is no slouch in the singer/ songwriter category, and her CD Loose Diamond she was awarded best country music album for 2000. Walkin' on the Moon was most familiar to me from other singers, but I do not remember who. She's literate. Phil Ochs, Leonard Cohen and Dave von Ronk appealed to her in her formative years.

Kate Moffatt (picture from her website)

A friend of mine told me I would love her concert (and I did) but warned me not to buy a CD knowing my aversion to potentially "popularized" (read electronic drums) CD materials of performers I'd heard live. But, I saw she had 8 or 9 different CD's lying out there representing her varied and nearly 20 year career. I rejected her latest, "Cowboygirl": although I really liked the music in concert, I wasn't sure I'd listen to it in the middle east setting. I asked her which was the most "just her". She recommended the very mellow recording Angel Town, which I chose and I'm not disappointed. I'll listen to it a lot. It contains material by Steve Goodman, Patrick Sky, and Cole Porter as well as a sampling of her own songs.

I know Paul Graham carries some of her materials if you want to stop in and check her out. Also, her website is at http://members.aol.com/klmoffatt/index.html

For all the glitter and fame, she expressed modesty and good humor and seemed a gentlefolk with magic long auburn hair. She said she came close to doing a gig in Eilat, although she hadn't heard of Jacob's Ladder. Now she has.

--Judi Ganchrow

I suppose we all wear an array of hats in being parents, teachers, musicians, etc. Sometimes we don two at once, as I did on January 2nd. I was invited to give a workshop at the E.T.A.I. (EnTeachers Association in Israel) conference in Haifa. The tof my presentation was Singing Along with the Times, and I planned to present folk songs that could be taught and sung with Israeli English students in relating to current events, literature and other topical issues. Song sheets and guitar in hand, I set out for the north wondering if I'd gather an audience and how the participants would feel about singing music of the U.S. civil rights movement, spirituals, women's lib ballads, American and Irish folksongs.

Within minutes my fears of an empty room were allayed, doubts cast aside. The classroom at the Arab Academic College for Education was packed to capacity. Teachers were sitting on the floor and desks, standing in the corners and doorway and spilling out into the corridor. It was the most multi-cultural "hootenanny" I'd ever been to (or led!) - English teachers of all backgrounds - Christians and Moslems, Jews (religious and secular), Druze, Circassians, Palestinians - each in his own national "costume" be it jeans or traditional - and they were ALL singing... The Witch Song, If You Miss Me at the Back of the Bus, There Were Roses, Last House on the Street and more. A rousing round of Rock My Soul in 3 parts was the grand finale. The following day I received an email message from a workshop participant "next door" who told me how they'd stopped their activities for a few minutes to listen to the music wafting out into the building.

The media continues to propel the tensions of the Middle East but one would have been hard set to find any at all at the conference. It was one of the most uplifting, inspiring and exhilarating musical events I've ever been a part of. Riding the southbound train to Beersheva at the end of the day with a golden glowing sunset over the sea as a backdrop, I had time to reflect on the experience and conversations that followed the workshop.... one I won't forget!

--Laurie Ornstein

"Tell old Bill, when he gets home this mornin',

Tell old Bill, when he gets home this evenin',

Tell old Bill, when he gets home,

To let them downtown girls alone

This mornin', this evenin', so soon

Bill left here 'bout half past eight this mornin'

Bill left here 'bout half past eight this evenin'

Bill left here 'bout half past eight

Well he left here by that old front gate

This mornin', this evenin', so soon

Sall was home a bakin' bread this mornin',

Sall was home a bakin' bread this evenin',

Sall was home a bakin' bread,

When she heard the news her Bill was dead "

Dave Van Ronk was a trouba- dour, a real folksinger's folksinger. To him even Jazz songs fell into the category of folk and he certainly sang them that way, with his own special vocal style, accom- panied mostly on guitar, but also quite capably on the dulcimer, autoharp and harmonica. I use the term "was" because a few weeks ago Dave Van Ronk - the man, the legend, an icon of Greenwich Village, succumbed to cancer at age 65. Van Ronk was born in Brooklyn, and lived most of his life in the heart of New York city in the Village. To me, Van Ronk was a blues singer, to others he may represent the father of the eclectic folk revival. He was perfectly comfortable singing an old traditional folk song like Tell Old Bill, or sweetly whispering a capella Come All Ye Fair and Tender Maids, followed by the Hesitation Blues, Sweet Substitute (Jelly Roll Morton), and even Mack The Knife or a Joni Mitchell or Randy Newman song. Dave Van Ronk was a great man in more ways than one, he was tall and wide and had whiskers like a bear, had a very big rough voice, he was a friend and great source of inspiration to many and sadly, had a great appetite for liquor and hard drugs. His career spanned four decades, and his moments of fame were probably limited to the 60's. He was one of Bob Dylan's main mentors in the early 60's, giving him shelter sometimes, teaching him some guitar, introducing him to a vast repertoire of blues. It was Van Ronk who spurred interest among the folkies in "House of the Rising Sun", and he was the catalyst that brought Dylan, the Byrds and Paul Simon to record the folk song He Was A Friend of Mine (which took on new meaning and became a eulogy to JFK after the assassination). When I finally met my hero, Van Ronk was spread across a couch in the after hours get together at the Toronto Folk Festival in the summer of 1980. There was a small party going on, and I jammed a bit on guitar with country blues artist Andy Cohen and even sang fifth part harmonies with the a capella R'n'B group the Persuasions. At one point, I approached Van Ronk, who was a bit drunk and reclining on the sofa. He motioned me over, took my hand, and proceeded to tell me a series of jokes.... that was the first and last time I saw him up close, the man who's records I had worn out trying to figure out certain complex guitar riffs or just enjoying the humor in songs that he made his own such as Swinging On a Star.

Fare thee well Dave Van Ronk.

--Eli Marcus

"I ran into a restaurant 'bout as hungry as a bear

And like a raving maniac, I grabbed the bill of fare

The waiter said what will you have - give me a steak I say,

He took my order bowed his head and slowly walked away,

And he never came back, he never came back,

Though I waited an hour or more,

Oh his face I will break if he don't bring my steak,

When we meet on that beautiful shore...."

Hokum has been nominated in three categories for the 2001 Washington Area Music awards. The nominations for 2001 are:

Jazz-Traditional: Duo/Group: Hokum Jazz

Jazz-Traditional: Female Vocalist: Esther Haynes

To read a review or the recording:

REVIEWS/r0901_043.htm

To read about Esther:

--Esther Haynes

This site was posted on a glossary list, because of its 'encyclopedia' - but maybe someone here's interested in the music news

http://www.musiciansnews.com/index.shtml

Happy Birthday to:

David Baron, Barbara Hochman, Lisa Rogoff

Refuah Shlema to Marc Gittelson

1) Investors /sponsors interested in advertising on the Jacob's Ladder tickets, programs and flyers.

2) Still looking for paying gigs for BanjerDan- May 5th -13^th.

3) We are looking for volun- teers to help at Jacob's Ladder Festival for office work, message taking, moving chairs and general odd jobs.

Volunteers are expected to work for 4 hours, possibly in two shifts. In exchange, we will provide one free ticket and a T-shirt !

If you are interested, please send e-mail or call Yehudit at 04.6962231 or 050.770.491 (not during school hours !)

--Menachem

NOT TRAD ADS - fee is NIS 10 (NIS 5 for members).

**SHELLEY ELLEN - guitarlessons, also available for performances (03) 674-5356. **Jill Rogoff's THE CELTIC CRADLE and ACROSS THE NARROW SEAS (ALC 129) are available on cassette and CD. Tel/Fax (02) 679-0410.

** Voice and/or flute lessons. Call Marcie Schreier: (053) 834-174.

**Computer Support. Free telephone support, and house calls. Very reasonable rates. Ben Hizak. (050)280-644.

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FolkNotes Staff: Sherry Whetstone, Larry Gamliel, Carol Fuchs, and Cecile Panzer

Guest editor: Della Littwin