Folk y política

Sometimes we are less direct. Our song The Tide explores how the great tide of people that washes in and out of London each day is a far more significant rhythm for many of us than the tidal rhythms of the River Thames, which would have dominated Londoners’ lives in the past. This disconnection from the natural world partly explains the damage we are doing; why would we protect something that we are so distanced from?

Many of the folk clubs of the 1960s and 70s were political spaces where radical ideas could be discussed. It must have felt to people then that they were part of something bigger than folk music and that they were engaging with the political struggles of the time. But many of those clubs are now gone. We need new spaces in which we can experience environmental art, discuss politics, collaborate across disciplines and – most importantly – spread hope that progress is possible if we come together.

A performance from last year sticks in my mind. We were at Fire in the Mountain, a beautiful festival held in West Wales. It was a period of bruising political upheaval. People in the UK were reeling from the Brexit debate, a divisive general election campaign and the election of Donald Trump. It felt that night as if our music enabled a collective processing of what was happening in the world, and, crucially, offered hope that better times will come. As we left the stage, the audience continued our final, hopeful chorus from the song Keep your Hand on the Plough. It struck Sid and I that the simple act of bringing people together is a solution to the problems we sing of. A shared sense of purpose and agency can be uniquely stirred by music, and we as musicians must do all we can to create that.

The power of folk music lies not just in its ability to document social change but also to effect it. So this is a call to arms for artists, and particularly folk musicians, to engage with environmental issues and for the environmental movement to seek out and support artists who are attempting to help the cause.

The Guardian