After years in and out of various rock bands primarily as a bassist, I started to wander down memory lane…

The first ‘band’ i was in was one with my brother and my second cousin, we jammed Nirvana covers (well it was the early nineties after all!) in our school music room but we never got as far as playing any gigs!

The second band I played in was an indie-style, ‘Gomez’ style band. This was my first real experience of playing in front of an, albeit rather small, crowd. I played quite a few shows with the band as a bass player, which is what I was trained to play at school and by my father who played as a bassist for many a band for over 30 years.

Part 2 tomorrow…

Camping describes a range of activities. Survivalist campers set off with little more than their boots, whereas recreational vehicle travellers arrive equipped with their own tents tents electricity, heat, and patio furniture. Camping is often done in conjunction with activities, such as hiking, hill walking, climbing, canoeing, mountain biking, swimming, and fishing. It may be combined with hiking either as backpacking or as a series of day hikes from a central location.

Some people vacation in permanent camps with cabins and other facilities (such as hunting camps or children’s summer camps), but a stay at such a camp is usually not considered ‘camping’. The term camping (or camping out) may also be applied to those who live outdoors out of necessity (as in the case of the homeless) or for people waiting overnight in (queues). It does not, however, apply to cultures whose technology does not include sophisticated dwellings. Camping may be referred to colloquially as roughing it.

Backpacking is a mobile variety of tents tents camping. Backpackers use lightweight equipment that can be carried long distances on foot. They hike across the land, camping at remote spots, often selecting campsites at will if resource protection rules allow. Backpacking equipment typically costs more than that for car camping, but still far less than a trailer or motorhome, and backpacking campsites are generally cheap.

Canoe camping is similar to backpacking, but uses canoes for transportation; much more weight and bulk can be carried in a canoe or kayak than in a backpack. Canoe camping is common in North America.

One form of bicycle touring combines camping with cycling. The bicycle is used to carry the gear and as the primary means of transportation, allowing greater distances to be covered than backpacking although less capacity for storage.

Motorcycle camping is more comparable to bicycle camping than car camping, due to the limited storage capacity of the motorbike. tents tents Motorcycle camping riders, as well as bicycle touring riders, often use some of the same equipment as backpackers, due to the lighter weights and compact dimensions associated with backpacking equipment.

Many campers enjoy socializing with a small group of fellow campers. Such groups will arrange events throughout the year to allow members with similar interests or from similar geographical areas to get together. This allows families to form small close knit societies, and children form lasting friendships. In states such as Connecticut, Iowa, Illinois, and Colorado children, under the age of 18, do not need adult supervision in order to enjoy nature, as long as the camp is in designated recreational or camp areas. However in some states such as Arkansas, Rhode Island, and Georgia many people can not camp until the age of 21 without a proper camping permit. There are two large organisations in the UK who facilitate this sort of camping: the Caravan Club and the Camping and Caravanning Club.

Folk songs are commonly seen as songs that express something about a way of life that exists now or existed in the past or is about to disappear (or in some cases, to be preserved or somehow revived). However, despite the assembly of an enormous body of work over some two centuries, there is still no certain definition of what folk music (or folklore, or the folk) is.

Gene Shay, co-founder and host of the Philadelphia Folk Festival, defined folk music in an April 2003 interview by saying: “In the strictest sense, it’s music that is rarely written for profit. It’s music that has endured and been passed down by oral tradition. [...] Also, what distinguishes folk music is that it is participatory—you don’t have to be a great musician to be a folk singer. [...] And finally, it brings a sense of community. It’s the people’s music.”

Recent research has suggested that the “folk process” may not be so simple to distinguish from other popular music processes. Early folk music was often written down and transformed by experts, even though they may have been amateurs.

Charles Seeger (1980) describes three contemporary defining criteria of folk music:

1. A “schema comprising four musical types: ‘primitive’ or ‘tribal’; ‘elite’ or ‘art’; ‘folk’; and ‘popular’. Usually…folk music is associated with a lower class in societies which are culturally and socially stratified, that is, which have developed an elite, and possibly also a popular, musical culture.” Cecil Sharp (1907)?, A.L. Lloyd (1972).
2. “Cultural processes rather than abstract musical types…continuity and oral transmission…seen as characterizing one side of a cultural dichotomy, the other side of which is found not only in the lower layers of feudal, capitalist and some oriental societies but also in ‘primitive’ societies and in parts of ‘popular cultures’.” Redfield (1947) and Dundes (1965).
3. Less prominent, “a rejection of rigid boundaries, preferring a conception, simply of varying practice within one field, that of ‘music’.”

Some consider “folk music” simply music that a (usually) local population can – and does – sing along to. Much modern popular music over the past few decades falls into this category. Jack Knight, a modern songwriter, defines a “folk song” as any song that when played or performed gets people’s lips moving in unison. Jazz musician Louis Armstrong and blues musician Big Bill Broonzy have both been attributed with the remark, “All music is folk music. I ain’t never heard a horse sing a song.”