The times may change, but folk music stays the same

NEW YORK CITY – Shadowed between two short rows of the ivy-and grime-covered brick buildings along Cornelia St., folk musician Ray Korona sipped his wine on the café patio, sharing his memories and his music with any who would listen. Cornelia St. Café is a landmark for folk music artists in Greenwich Village.

"Folk musicians used to assemble in this very room behind me 30 years ago," Korona said, blue eyes bright with significance, indicating the front room of the café.

Not much has changed, Korona admitted with a wide smile, nearly reaching the long gray waves that bordered his countenance. Not much at all. It's just bigger, he explained, meaning both the café itself and the music that defined it.

A side street away from Seventh Ave. where taxicabs and ambulances scream and stripes of all color clash against the hot city street, Cornelia St. is a detour from the rush and roar of Manhattan. Here, the street pulses with a quieter more natural rhythm, capturing the same stripped and authentic humanity that often defines the folk music sound.

Korona has been a folk musician since the early 1980's, writing music and performing it locally in New York City since then. To him and other folk musicians like him, however, music holds not only personal but international significance.

"The secret is there's real power that comes out of knowledge, out of heart, and out of passion. And people who run the show all over the world have always known that, " said Korona.

Korona recounted the influence of his song "We Will Have Dignity," which he wrote after a fire in a doll-making factory in Bangkok, where almost 200 young women died because they were trapped in a wooden structure.

"I wrote a song that told that story," said Korona. The song was picked up by the United Nation's International Labor office in Europe, translated into 18 different languages and sung in Johannesburg, South Africa at the World Summit for Sustainable Development.

"And all this happened, you know, without me really doing anything about it, but that's just the way folk music works," Korona said with a shrug. "It's the music of the people."

Sally Campbell of the People's Voice Café, a venue in New York City for folk musicians agrees with Korona that folk music is music that stays true to ideals and carries the message of the artist.

"We believe music can change the world," Campbell said.

Not all folk music is characterized by its message, however.

"I'm not trying to accomplish anything with our music," said Reverend. Thomas Vito Aiuto of the Welcome Wagon, a folk band from New York City. "The Welcome Wagon doesn't have a purpose any more than a child has a purpose, or a tree has a purpose.  A tree may grow flowers or bear fruit or provide shade…. But I think that the ultimate "purpose" of a tree is much more ineffable and mysterious—or even to say, I think a tree is ultimately useless.  The value of a tree, ultimately, is beyond any use or purpose one has for it."

Stephanie Cottingham of the independent folk band Ortolan identifies with the folk music genre.

Like Korona's music, Ortolan is influenced by musicians of the past, such as Bob Dylan, but they are also influenced by more recent musicians, such as Eisley.

With this wide range of influences, the four piece folk band sounds unlike the thin unplugged sound of Korona's music.

Hours away from the constant cacophony of Manhattan, the band members live together in a house in Delran, N.J., where they each work individual jobs but hope to eventually find a career together in their music.

The girls' untrained vocals weave in and out of each other over the steady chords of a piano and light drumming.

Although classified as folk, their music is markedly different from the rapid picking of Ray Korona's acoustic guitar and sing-talking vocals. Not only do they add some non acoustic elements but their music does not address the same themes of political change that emanate from the voice and instruments of artists like Korona.

"Our music comes mostly from our personal lives," Cottingham said. However, like Korona, Ortolan's music is meant to go outside of themselves and influence its auditors.

"We're trying to encourage people with our music," said Cottington, saying that she desired her music to bring hope to those who hear it.

Yet, although Korona and Ortolan would be found at the same Manhattan venue, their music is more alike than one might first think.

According to Korona, folk music is something that has not changed over the years. There are as many folk musician styles as there are different folks.

The genre is sometimes characterized by antiquated instruments – like the glockenspiel, jaw harp or accordion – as well as a sound stripped of the computerized production, giving it a raw and down-home sound.

Artists like the Welcome Wagon and Sufjan Stevens are at the forefront of a current trend towards music that embraces this honest humanity in both style and lyricism.

According to Korona, however, no matter how the instrumentation or the message of folk music folk music alters, the integrity of the genre stays the same.

Folk music is authentic and based in personal roots, Korona explained – the key to the genre being its authenticity in both production and meaning.

Producer Michael Kaufmann of Asthmatic Kitty Records, a small record label that produces music by artists such as the Welcome Wagon, counters Korona's definition of folk music, however, saying that all music has the power to present a message, from rap to folk.