The Secret Mission of the Folk Musician - Part 4

post 30 – folk music "of" and "from" the people - an interview with Jon Stotian

My conversation with nationally touring Wisdom Catcher and folk musician Jon Stotian continues. In Parts 1 and 2, Jon talked about sharing songs and stories with honesty and truth, and integrity and compassion.  In Part 3, he shares his definition of '“folk” music. Part 4 picks up with this question:

Music Of and From the People

Spook:  You’ve said folk music is of the people and from the people.  Can you expand on that?

Jon:  “There are thousands of songs that illustrate this, but let’s start with ‘We Shall Overcome.’  There are all kinds of stories about how this song evolved.  Even if the stories are not totally accurate, they show what Pete (Seeger) called the folk process.”

Spook:  “Tell us about the folk process?”

Jon:  “One of the origin stories of We Shall Overcome – according to Pete – and you were there when he told us – is that the song used to sing I’ll Overcome or I Will Overcome.  It was a song sung often in southern Black churches.  Because many of these churches supported the Civil Rights Movement, many songs sung in these churches were also sung at Civil Rights marches and other events.  Here’s one story of how the song evolved:

“A young girl once asked a march organizer if she could sing ‘I Will Overcome.’  The leader said, ‘No.  But you can sing We Will Overcome.’  The idea was that civil rights were not going to be gained by individuals working alone.  It had to come from a group effort. 

We, not Me

“Now, the word ‘We’ may have been adapted elsewhere and earlier than this particular event.  But what’s important is how singing We, instead of I, resonated with people.  This is the critical ingredient.  Do the words resonate with people?

“We resonated because people singing it valued the strategy of group effort over that of individuals going it alone – enough so that the song evolved from I Will Overcome to We Will Overcome.  (Later, the song became We Shall Overcome – mostly because shall is more of an open vowel than will, so it sounds fuller and stronger.) 

“Because We became the accepted way to sing this song, the word not only reflected the value of group effort, it also promoted it.  Today, it’s very common to hear in folk music, as well as in politics, the phrase ‘We, not me.’  So here you have this principle embedded in a song - a song that at one time most Americans knew.

New Verses From the People

“Another ‘folk evolution’ of this song happened because it is easy to make up new verses.  Some of these verses resonated with ‘the people’ and became popular, such as ‘We shall live in peace,’ ‘We’ll walk hand in hand,’ and what Pete called the most important verse of all – and I agree – ‘We are not afraid.’

“But I’ll bet people made up hundreds of other verses that did not resonate.  Like, who knows?  Maybe ‘We will win the race,’ or ‘someday we’ll be rich,’ or ‘someday we’ll be friends.’  But because they didn’t resonate, they didn’t get repeated, didn’t get adopted, and didn’t become part of the song. 

“The more a song goes through the folk process, the more it becomes distilled to reflect and promote the values of the people singing it.”

What about our Sisters?

Spook:  “Tell us about ‘If I Had a Hammer’”

Jon:  “Pete Seeger and Lee Hayes wrote the song in 1949.  The original words sang about ‘love between ALL of my brothers.’  These words promoted harmony between the races - Blacks and Whites.  But, according to Pete, the first three times he sang the song, people asked ‘Why are you singing only about our brothers?  What about our sisters?’  Pete told them that was too many syllables.  But after the third time, he changed the line to ‘a song about love between my brothers and my sisters.’  Pete, himself said this was a much better line.

“This is another case of the people shaping a song’s lyrics.  And for that reason, this song is of the people – of the folks.  It’s a folk song.  As a result, when I learned the song in kindergarten, I didn’t learn about ‘brotherly’ love, I learned about ‘brother and sisterly’ love.

Folk Music’s Special Place

Spook:  “Does the folk process happen only in folk music?”

Jon:  “The folk process can happen in other genres.  But can you imagine this happening in classical or jazz? If people don’t sing a song over and over and far and wide, how does the voice of the people get infused into the song?  When people sing a song often enough, they eventually put their own words into it.  New words that reflect our values resonate.  Words that resonate get sung by other people and over time become a part of the song.  This way the song gives voice to the people – to folks.  That’s why ‘folk’ is a very apt description of this style of music.”

Spook:  “Does the folk process have to happen through songs?”

Jon:  “Not necessarily.  But how do you change the words to a book?  Or a movie?  We do see it in politically biased ‘news’ programs.  This past January, in the year 2024, somebody – probably on TV - must have said that January 2021 was four years ago because in one week I heard a dozen politicians say ‘January 6 was four years ago – so let’s get over it.’  But it was only three years ago. But 2024 minus 2021 equalling 4 resonated with enough people that it became a part of the public vernacular. Is this what we want?

Spook:  “Does that scare you?”

Jon:  “If ordinary people stop singing – if we stop infusing into our culture the values of We the People – the common people – if we stop participating in shaping the public conversation, then we cede our voices to the political commentators and the moneyed people and their lot. And they can infuse the public conversation with whatever values they wish.  So maybe Pete was right when he said that if human beings are going to survive on this planet in any sizable number fifty years from now, it will be because we remembered how to sing together.”

Spook:  “Let’s hope we do!”

Keep the Flame Alive!