Originally published in Vanguard, August 1987 Print

TOWARDS A NEW FOLK MUSIC

By BOB NASH

WHEN one speaks of Folk Music, there is a tendency to think of old England and the sound of lutes played by singing minstrels, or of some Celtic Harpist relaying old tales of Kings and battles; or finally of the swirl of the Scottish pipes from some distant glen.

However, it is important to remember that the nature of Folk Music, the music of the ordinary people, has changed according to the nature of the musical instruments that were commonly available to those ordinary people across the centuries.

Once an individual had either made or obtained some form of musical instrument and mastered its use, he could then use it like any other tool as a means of self-expression. Whereas early Folk Music had lutes and woodwind instruments as its main tools, the later development of the guitar changed the means of expression, but not the subject expressed, namely the ideals of a common racial community. In modern society with the advent of big cities there has been an uprooting of old village-style communities, and a tendency to develop a sense of rootlessness. However, this sense of isolation can be remedied, and one of the ways to do this is to create a new form of Folk Music.

BLAND

The current Music Industry is multi-national and tends towards a bland mass-concept in pursuit of profit. The antidote to this is for individuals and groups to operate independently of the music industry, playing to smaller audiences and specifically, people who want to hear their music.

We therefore need our own writers and musicians who are Nationalists, and are interested in promoting their music outside the corrupting and creatively stifling confines of the current music establishment. This is not such an arduous task as it might at first seem: an independent White Music industry could be achieved.

1800s maypole scene by Robert Walker Macbeth. The essence of the folk song and dance tradition – the whole community can participate for it is an expression of the ideals shared by that whole community.

POOL RESOURCES

If a group of Nationalists were to pool their financial resources they could have sufficient capital available to set up their own recording studio, for use by Nationalist music groups and musicians in significant numbers to take advantage of these facilities.

Similarly, if Nationalist groups were to play to small audiences, say 200 to 300 people but at the same time organise their concerts or gigs themselves, controlling the sale of tickets and group merchandise, such as records, tapes and t-shirts etc, without the use of middlemen, they too would soon profit while continuing to have artistic control over the style of music and lyrics they wanted to play.

By the creation of a small, intimate White-orientated music industry, we could once more re-furnish the spirit under which British Folk Music once flourished. In fact we would be creating a new Folk Music, propelled by the message of British Nationalism and totally relevant to the lives and aspirations of our people in contemporary society.

By the development of such a new system not only would it make the poisonous influence of the current music industry irrelevant, we would also be communicating directly to our own people, especially to the young, of the pride to be found in their own race and traditions. We have the tools to hand, all we need is the will to use them.