Folk music has always been about storytelling. Go back far enough to a time before widespread literacy and folk music was the newspaper of its day, carrying news, preserving history, raising political awareness, or just providing entertainment at the end of the working week. Often, all of the above.
As folk music enters the 21st century, the influence of indie and pop and the invention of genres like folktronica have subverted the genre from its original purpose. That’s my take on things, anyway. Thankfully, Tim Ainslie And The Vibes remember what the genre was all about, and with “Oyster Reach,” they brilliantly blend the local history of their native Suffolk with an upbeat and modern take on the traditional folk sound.
We are lucky here in the UK that our history wends its way back centuries. Tim takes us through the history and heritage, the quirks and cool descriptions of the land around a 400-year-old pub, and all the changes it has witnessed. It’s like an episode of Villages By The Sea hosted by The Oyster Band…who for more than just musical reasons, would be the perfect hosts for such a show.
This is exactly what folk music was always about, and “Oyster Reach” is a brilliant indication of where folk music is today, that blend of traditional sounds and modern freshness but still the perfect vehicle for telling stories – music that is both entertaining and informative, and more importantly, a way of keeping these stories alive in the face of modern apathy.
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