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Notes from the Road
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date: Friday, Feb. 11 & Sat. Feb 12
locale: Cleveland, OH
I got an e-mail a few months ago asking me to list the National Hobo Association website. I was curious and surfed through some fascinating and very well-written articles from their journal, the Hobo Times. I made the mistake of asking how these self-described hobos - most with homes and some, according to the stories, schlepping laptops - rationalize riding the rails for free these days. Stop by our hotel room, they said. So I did.
Turns out there's still a loosely knit society of hobos. Some are real. Some are making a political statement against materialism and steady habits. And some are simply trying to preserve a culture - including its music - that has made its way into America's lore and legend. In this hotel room, packed and hot, there is a cheerful, familial atmosphere for a round robin of old rod-riders and drifters. The Professor sings an ode to "woad," the blue paint druid warriors painted their naked bodies in days of yore. A former Hobo King sings the 2-minute ballad that won him his election to that honorary post.
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A hobo jungle on the 10th floor of the Sheraton might be a little incongruous, but no one seemed to mind as long as the room was paid for and the coffee was hot. Al Grierson sets up to sing the ballad of a notorioiusly mean railroad bull who gets his comeuppance from a pair of tramps who turn homicidal over a bowl of spilled stew. Utah Phillips (white beard) and other 'bos look on. |
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Hobo songs preserve the history, the memory of a time when men and women road the rails cross country to find work during hard times. They capture the wanderlust that is still peculiarly American, and they lampoon those of us who are too snug in our beds at night, who have forgotten the lure of the road and the lore of the rugged individual who owns nothing except the clothes on his back (and maybe a laptop). From what I can see, this is mostly a brotherhood.
The Hobos sing and joke, but there's an agenda here beyond the nostalgia for a time and a culture that may be gone forever. Next year at Vancouver, they want a place in the official conference program. There couldn't be a wider gap between this aging group and the hordes of modern young singer-songwriters who have all but taken over the folk scene and this conference. That's why Ani DiFranco's partnership with Utah Phillips was such a radical move - it's the kind of thing that has set her apart from the beginning. But in general, the folk world is still split between the purists, for whom folk music is the life blood of a culture, and the entertainers - those like the Limelighters, Peter Paul and Mary, and even some of the modern singersongwriters like Vance Gilbert, Susan Werner, David Wilcox - who, by popularizing the acoustic sound, both misrepresent folk music and bring many thousands of new listeners to it. In the wake of the Folk Alliance, the debate over whether this is ultimately good or bad for folk music rages on the FolkDJ-List (check their archives). But it's an age old fact, pure and simple. It's pretty clear that you can't have one without the other.
I'm sorry to have to slip out before Utah Phillips sings, but I have a showcase of my own to play.
Alex Hassilev of the Limelighters, songwriter Dave Mallett, and
WXPN (Phila., PA) DJ/guru Gene Shay in the Sheraton lobby.
more Folk Alliance photos ->
Hugh Blumenfeld, Editor
hugh@balladtree.com
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