The week of April 24-29 promises to be an exciting time on the UMass Boston campus as we mark the occasion of the inauguration of our new chancellor Dr. Michael Collins. The university community has planned a week of events that the general public is invited to including a symposium on folk music produced by WUMB, which we are pleased to invite you to attend.

The WUMB Radio Folk Music symposium will take place on Thursday, April 27th from 6:30-8:30pm in the UMass Boston Campus Center Ballroom. The event is free, but we strongly suggest you reserve a seat by calling 617-287-6900 or send us an e-mail. If you would like directions to the university, click here. Thank you to the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities for their support of this event.

The symposium will feature PowerPoint presentation, and a panel of four people who have been an integral part of the Boston Folk Music scene since the '60s: Scott Alarik, Kari Estrin, Bill Nowlin and Dick Pleasants; and, moderated by Mark Schlesinger. We will also distribute a time-line of the Boston Folk Music scene from 1970 to 2006 at the event.

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The Renaissance of Folk Music in Boston: After the '60s

Anyone in Boston during the '60s remembers the vibrancy and the energy of the college student-generated "folk revival;" every night, clubs all over town were packed with musicians and fans. When the '70s came around, things had changed: what was once a centralized union of people became a scattered and loose connection of aficionados. Some of the area’s top artists moved out of town, and for whatever reason, folk music in Boston appeared to take a back seat to other styles. Now, in retrospect, it appears as though the '70s were really a germination time during which the talented crop of folk musicians who appeared in the '80s was taking shape.

Boston folk's music scene in the '80s was largely driven by radio support and stronger presence in local papers; which in turn, encouraged venues to open their doors to a public that was increasingly eager to participate. In any movement, the natural cycle of peaks and valleys would dictate; in Boston, however, the folk movement, driven by the active participation of musicians, fans, and a veritable folk community, created a Renaissance that continues to flourish.

Beginning in the '80s there has been a veritable explosion of folk music activities. Open mic's, coffeehouses, and music camps have flowered in profusion. In any week one can find several open mic's, where beginning to accomplished musicians try their songs in public and hone their performance skills. Every weekend there are numerous choices of folk concerts to attend at the myriad coffeehouses and house concerts in the area, not to mention all the folk concerts at larger venues. Music camps such as WUMB's Summer Acoustic Music Week have nurtured scores of singer-songwriters, who have then poured into the open mic’s and coffeehouses, to sing and to learn.

Although the folk music scene may have seemed quiescent during the '70s, there has always been activity underground, which occasionally surfaced, and finally came out for good. Through word-of-mouth, flyers, newspapers, and the Internet, people have connected to create the music and to attend concerts. There have always been people interested in taking music lessons on acoustic instruments and learning the songwriting craft. Musicians of all sorts have been teaching others. Music camps have proliferated, helping to create folk music communities that continued outside of camps. There has been a revolution in this learning to play phenomenon.

Supporting these activities has been the media exposure of roots and acoustic music. Many have become aware of acoustic instruments and their ready availability. More and more people are seeing music being made and yearning to be able to create such music themselves. Folk music is music of the people. It nurtures and stimulates our emotions. It provokes our thoughts. You can't ignore it. It has never gone away and it never will.

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Scott Alarik

Scott Alarik is the principal folk writer for the Boston Globe, and a folk critic for public radio news. Black Wolf Press recently published his first book, “Deep Community: Adventures in the Modern Folk Underground,” He is also a folk singer and songwriter who performs regularly at coffeehouses near his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Alarik has been the principal folk music writer for the Boston Globe since 1986. He is also the folk critic for the National Public Radio news program "Here and Now", and before that was folk correspondent for the International Monitor Radio morning news. He is a frequent contributor to Sing Out!, the Folk Music Magazine, and was editor of the New England Folk Almanac from 1991-97.

Before moving to Boston in the early '80s, the Minnesota native spent nearly 15 years as a folk singer and songwriter, releasing three albums and appearing regularly on the public radio hit "A Prairie Home Companion". With his move to Boston, he began writing for a small folk magazine called the Black Sheep Review but soon began writing for the Boston Globe. Alarik has become one of the most influential music writers covering the folk music scene in the country.

In 1991, Alarik, in partnership with the Folk Arts Network, founded the New England Folk Almanac. From 1991-97, it grew from a regional music calendar into a nationally respected magazine.

Alarik remains a prolific presence in the Boston Globe, Sing Out and on National Public Radio's nationally syndicated show "Here and Now." Alarik has written scores of liner notes for folk artists including Tom Paxton, Ramblin' Jack Elliot, Holly Near and Ronnie Gilbert, D.L. Menard, Cheryl Wheeler, Ellis Paul, Tony Rice, John McCutcheon, and contra dance legends Rodney Miller and Bob McQuillen. He wrote the introduction to Dar Williams' first songbook, the first bio for the Irish supergroup Solas, and the script for the Smithsonian-Folkways 50th Anniversary Concert at Carnegie Hall, which was read by actors Ossie Davis and Theodore Bikel.

 

Kari Estrin

Kari Estrin's extensive experience in the music business ranges from artist and tour management, to concert/festival/event production, as well as publishing and writing. She maintains a successful artist career consulting business and enjoys freelancing a diverse range of activities and projects.

Establishing herself in Cambridge, Massachusetts in the early '80s, Estrin founded BLACK SHEEP CONCERTS & PUBLICATIONS, INC. and was active as an artist manager- from bluegrass legend Tony Rice to the 3 Mustaphas 3, who reached No. 1 on the Billboard World Music Charts. Estrin tour managed for Suzanne Vega and other rock groups as well as several world music bands.

While back in Cambridge, Estrin presented over 70 shows at Harvard, Symphony Hall, The Berklee Performance Center and other area venues and also published and edited The Black Sheep Review, a bi-monthly, internationally subscribed to acoustic music magazine. In addition Estrin has written and/or edited numerous folk articles and books. She has booked or produced many festivals and shows, such as the Newport FolkFestival, Merlefest, and major Nashville events. For The Folk Alliance's Nashville Conference in 2003 Estrin served as co-chair of the local committee and recently has started production of a new series/radio show with WUMB Folk Radio - Boston, with a two-hour special scheduled to air sometime in the future.

 

Bill Nowlin

Bill Nowlin began writing about the Boston Red Sox as a young teenager and has established himself as an authority on the much-beloved Sox, with ten published books (and several others waiting in the wings) and over 100 articles in various newspapers, magazines, and journals. Nowlin grew up in Lexington, Massachusetts and eventually enrolled in Tufts University, studying political science, but his life took an unexpected detour into the music industry.

Beginning in 1962, he and his Tufts roommate, Ken Irwin, worked to earn free passes for folk music events by publicizing them on campus for various Boston-area promoters, often spending two or three nights a week at Cambridge's legendary Club 47. This fostered a passion for roots and traditional music, a passion which lead Nowlin, Irwin, and third partner Marian Leighton Levy, to form Rounder Records in 1970. From its first few humble releases of vintage and contemporary Appalachian stringband music, Rounder blossomed over time into one of America's largest independently-owned record labels and the premier source for roots music of many cultures. What began as a three-person collective now stands as a self-sustaining corporation boasting over eighty employees, three-thousand releases, and a roster which includes such luminaries as Alison Krauss, John Hartford, George Thorogood, Irma Thomas, and a host of lesser-know yet equally important roots music artists.

Nowlin also served for the first dozen years of Rounder Records' existence as a professor of political science at the University of Lowell (Mass.); Dr. Nowlin retired from teaching in 1982. Nowlin is a seasoned traveler. His dual thirsts for travel and music lead to him to traverse such musically-rich territories as South Africa, Jamaica, and the Bahamas in search of musicians and recordings which were eventually released on Rounder. With fellow reggae fans Chris Wilson and Duncan Browne, he co-founded the acclaimed Heartbeat Records imprint in the early 1980s.

Nowlin serves on the Board of Directors for the Passim Folk Music and Cultural Center in Cambridge, the non-profit successor to the old Club 47. For several years he served on the Board of Governors of the Texas chapter of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, the august body which runs the Grammy Awards. He lives in Cambridge, MA with his wife and 13-year-old son Emmet.

 

Dick Pleasants

Dick Pleasants' love for folk music, and love of radio has kept him a seasoned New England announcer for over 25 years. A Graduate of Emerson College, Pleasants has been involved in the Boston folk Scene since 1970 in radio, concert production and broadcast management.

Starting in 1970 at WCIB-FM, he hosted a show called the Sail Loft. That show inspired him and a small group of folks to form the Woods Hole Folk Music Society in1973. In 1972, Pleasants also hosted The Boston Folk Scene on WCAS. In 1977, he joined WATD-FM on weekends, until 1981 when he began hosting and producing Something Different five days a week from 7pm-midnight, until 1989. In October 1978, Pleasants and a small group of listeners from WATD began the South Shore Folk Music Club. Also in 1978, Pleasants began the Folk Heritage on WGBH, which he produced and hosted until 2003. In 1989 he became program director of WADN-AM where he booked the Riverbank Festival. From 1993 – 2003, Pleasants founded and ran Ear To The Ground Productions and produced concerts in Concord and Somerville. In 1994 he joined WBOS and promptly left for WUMB-FM a year later.

While at WUMB, he has helped to create and direct the WUMB Summer Acoustic Music Week, two weeks of adult music camp in New Hampshire. Pleasants is instrumental in the booking of the Boston Folk festival and the Boston Folk Festival Songwriting Contest. Pleasants now hosts The Morning Express on WUMB, Folk Radio where he is also Special Events Coordinator.

Pleasants has received numerous awards during his illustrious career, including the Eisteddfod Award in 1985 for his contributions to folk music, the Jerry Christen Memorial Award by the Boston Area Coffeehouse Association in 2004, and The Living Legend Award by Club Passim in the Spring of 2006.

 

Mark Schlesinger - MODERATOR

Mark Schlesinger is the Associate Vice President for Academic Technology, in the UMass Central Office. He is on leave from the Communication Studies Program at UMB, which he directed for nine years.

Schlesinger studied musicology in college and graduate school, but abandoned that pursuit in favor of - he thought at the time - more contemporary issues. (He wasn't adept enough to integrate those interests with his musical bent, so folk music performance was not in the offing.)

As a consumer, however, Schlesinger has long been interested in folk music. His passion began with his mother playing the piano from "The Fireside Book of Folk Songs" while his father, sister and he sang. He became a folkie for real in the mid 1950's, at age 10 or so, when Pete Seeger came to town (Plattsburgh, NY). In graduate school, he played gutbucket (washtub bass) and sang vocals for the Hubbardsville Dubl Handl Jug Band, an amateur group which played gigs from Cornell to Skidmore and points in between. He holds a Ph.D. from University of Michigan in Education

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This symposium is funded in part by

If you have any comments about the event or ideas for future similar events, please contact us at wumbinfo@umb.edu.