Moments of Silence and Risk: The Alchemy of Folk Alliance 2024 Day 1

 

Shabankareh Honoring Lopez-Galvan

The evening before the 36^th Annual Folk Alliance International Conference, Kansas City’s KKFI DJ Tommy Andrade hosted a special tribute episode of A Taste of Tejano dedicated to his co-host Lisa Lopez-Galvan (Lisa G). Lopez-Galvan’s death by gunfire—amidst twenty-two other victims of the mass shooting that took place during the Chiefs’ Superbowl celebration—stunned the world, but the loss could be palpably felt among the international community built by the music Lopez-Galvan and Andrade celebrated every Tuesday night on our community radio station. The tribute show was an outpouring of grief, yes, but also joy and love. Listen here: https://kkfi.org/program-episodes/tribute-to-lisa-lopez-galvan/

A shrine honoring the place where Lopez-Galvan lost her life formed just catty-cornered from the Westin Crown-Center Hotel, the place Folk Alliance International has held most of its annual conferences over the past decade. The event has always been a celebration of the community that surrounds music—fans, musicians, and DJs and community organizers like Lopez-Galvan. So, it was more than appropriate and extraordinarily important that FAI board president Ashley Shabankareh opened the first all-conference convocation, the awards show, by speaking of Lopez-Galvan, calling for a moment of silence, and then urging everyone in attendance to reach out, look after, and take care of each other over the next four days. 

Joy Clark Honors Tracy Chapman

The theme of the conference is “Alchemy: A Transformative Force,” and the night’s award recipients built their careers upon and underscored their commitment to the idea that music can change the world. First up was a lifetime achievement award for Tracy Chapman, whose appearance with Luke Combs last week at the Grammys said volumes about music’s desire to tear down the walls that separate us. Last night, New Orleans’ great songwriter and guitarist Joy Clark rocked the awards hall tearing into “Give Me One Reason” with the house band Steel Wheels.  

The other winners were a diverse list of world changers—Huddie (Leadbelly) Ledbetter’s great great niece Terika Dean for her work in part as chair of the Blues Foundation, the LEAF Global Arts Festival for its efforts at environmental sustainability, and Victor Jara’s estate, for the great Chilean songwriter’s revolutionary career transforming his country’s music into a vital force that led to revolutionary change (and, as has too often been the cost) his martyrdom. Contemporary artists who won were as vital and diverse as popular music at its best—Guatamala’s great “rising tide” winner Sara Curruchich, as well as FAI favorites Iris DeMent, Billy Strings, Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway, and Hurray for the Riff Raff’s Alynda Segarra. Segarra used the moment to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

With the loss of Lopez-Galvan in mind, particularly poignant were the tributes to the DJs:  Folk Alley’s Linda Fahey, Just Us Folk’s Jan Vanderhorst, Mountain Stage’s Larry Groce, A Celtic Sojourn’s Brian O’Donovan, and Woody’s Children’s Bob Sherman.

Northern Resonance

After the awards ceremony, the event moved upstairs to the private showcases in the hotel rooms where guests had sheltered in place the week before during the events surrounding the shooting. It was in these rooms six years ago that an artist from my hometown, Chris Lee Becker, organized a performance in response to the shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. I wrote about that here: https://takeemastheycome.blogspot.com/2018/02/once-was-blind-but-now-chris-lee-becker.html

In one room, the Scandinavian musical trio Northern Resonance built infectious reels out of instruments like the Swedish Nyckelharpa (a string instrument with 37 keys on its neck), the Norwegian Hardanger fiddle, and the seven-stringed viola d’amore. In another, I heard such a jaw-dropping solo performance by Trinidad-born UK singer Michele Stodart that I hesitate to try to say more here. Stodart wields a voice and guitar as tough and ambitious as blues and pop get. https://www.northernresonance.se/

Michele Stodart 

https://www.michelestodart.com/home-1

But I find myself thinking about the smaller moments—the ones in which we did, indeed, seem to be taking care of one another. During his often-hilarious set which featured sing-a-longs to squirrel cookouts and bumper sticker wit, Kansan Sky Smeed decided to try out a new song to see if he could get any help figuring out “what’s wrong with it.” Before playing the song, he said, “This could be where it all goes south, and I’m okay with that.” What he played was heartbreaking and beautiful. https://www.skysmeed.com/

Similarly, Canadian singer Ken Presse stopped at one point and asked the small group gathered to hear him if he should play “a cover, the song I was going to play, or a French song.” We gave him carte blanche. His cover of “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” managed to evoke a moving whisper of a sing-along, appropriate to the size of the room and the fact that he went acapella for the refrain. The audience happily encouraged the French song as a follow up.

Ken Presse

But it was an earlier moment that most stood out. Presse mentioned that he was about to have a child, and that he regretted how much of his life he’d spent working. He said the song, about another way of living, was called “Someday.” And he added, “Maybe I can learn from it.”

Of course, the unstated truth was we all could. On this night, perhaps more than ever before, Folk Alliance felt like a place where the music was there to teach, and we were there to learn.

https://www.kenpresse.com/

 https://www.rainbowgirlsmusic.com/

https://blues.org/about/terika-dean/

The Rainbow Girls Honor Terika Dean (and Leadbelly)