Folk Musicians Who Want to Be…

Posted by Brett Hooton Dec 6, 2006

You know how there is this phenomenon right now with every actor wanting to sing and every singer wanting to act and people who can’t sing or act somehow doing both?

I suppose it has always been around (one just has to think of all those fantastic movies that Elvis made, and for which he was denied an Oscar nomination literally hundreds of times).

Well, lately this trend has just been going overboard. What’s next, Scarlett Johannson covers Tom Waits? Oh wait… that’s really happening.

Fortunately, folk musicians have yet to dive head first into this type of bi-genre curiosity. Sure Bob Dylan has appeared in a few movies, but the mostly really suck.

Now, though, could the tide be shifting? Could folkies be slowly falling under the spell of that succubus we call Fame, the goddess that is constantly tempting you to cross market yourself?

Probably not. But we did think it was fun to see that one of our favorite sons, Bonnie “Prince” Billy will be trying his hand at stand-up comedy. If you are in the Chicago area, you should check out the performance. Be forewarned, though, his songs tend to be pretty melancholy. I’m guessing that doesn’t bode well for your funny bones. Who knows, though.

Also, Billy has two new videos online that you can peruse for indications of what might be in his set. Moustache and beard jokes anyone?

Another folkstress who has yet to appear on this page, but whose most recent album has been making all kinds of waves, is the harpist/poet/singer-songwriter, Joanna Newsom. Her album Ys has been appearing on basically everyone’s top-ten list for the year. Hear some of it as she plays DJ on NPR’s “All Songs Considered.”

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