Members of local folk talent pool, many of whom will participate in the free Folk Festival workshops on Saturday, Nov. 19, try to play out all the time. But the market is tight, and people can't go out every night.
"You've got people in their mid-40s into their 50s listening," Blum said. "They're now nesters, and they've got a couple of kids and they can't go out."
But while folk has a dedicated, if aging, local audience, Blum acknowledges the need to expand the audience by exposing the younger generation to the music.
"I'm a little concerned about this market skewing older," Blum said.
While Kent State has hosted the Folk Festival for 39 years, few students actually attend.
"You would hope that these 20,000 kids would wake up and realize that they don't have to listen to the crap that's being handed to them," Blum said.
"How do you get them to do it? You can't force it down their throats."
Efforts to attract a younger audience to the 2005 festival include the continuation of the festival talent contest and the booking of younger acts, including Over the Rhine, premier jam band The Horse Flies, the Dust Poets and fiddler April Verch, who opens for Donovan on Nov. 19.
Those who have discovered folk music have sought it out, according to Blum, who describes the folk audience as "bright people who just won't settle for...pablum."
"And then they're enlightened when they find that there is a choice," Blum said.
Information on tickets for all Kent State Folk Festival shows is available at kentstatefolkfestival.org/
(Also available at brhubart.blogspot.com)
edited:ME
Article comments
1 - Rita Earle
Folks like Jim Blum need to be out in the Libraries and the venues where young kids are. Our Library in Oak Park, Illinois has a once a month poetry/slam porgram. And what is music? Poetry set to music.
I was absolutely floored and turned on to Folk Alley one day when I was stressed out and maxed out at work. Had to go in and finish payroll after a very intense week. Totally smoothed me out. Thanks, Jims.