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Ashamed to Be Celtic
Ye know, sometimes I'm almost ashamed of the Celtic community at large. Okay, first this is just looking at it *in general*, which as we all know is a bunch of crock.
Last night, I got back up on my soapbox. Since 1999, we've had to "justify" our every performance in Texas with the Texas Celtic Music Association (www.texcelt.org). The TCMN is a website founded by Austinite to promote Celtic music in Texas. It's biggest accomplishment IMO is a weekly ezine that features every Celtic gig in Texas and some of the surrounding states.
One the one hand, WOW! What an incredible contribution to the Celtic community. On the other, it's a joke!
Why? Well, it's biased. It only features "Celtic" music. But Celtic music is defined quite narrowly as pretty much Irish traditional music, or any music that focuses on jigs and reels.
Of course this means that bands like mine, the Brobdingnagian Bards, are often excluded from the website because sometimes we play folk and filk music.
Okay, I admit that I'm a bit of a hypocrit at times. I have my own limited definitions of what is "Celtic", but even with my Celtic MP3s Music Magazine I try to accept ANY band that wants to call themselves Celtic.
Course, this means that often there are some "Celtic" songwriters who don't play any traditional music at all, all contemporary with an airy sound, who call themselves "Celtic". Well, as much as I wouldn't call it "Celtic", that's okay.
So last night, I decided I was sick of being passive in my ever explosive passion and over-anxiousness. So I sent an email to the Board that we should start our own Celtic weekly ezine to promote Central Texas events.
I'm hoping, hoping, hoping that the Board will see the advantage of looking past narrow-minded definitions and open themselves up to variety. Yes, this might mean we'll get a flood of New Age "Celtic" or Pagan "Celtic" or "Celtic" Rock that many in the community might not enjoy, but if it's helping to build a strong community that does not alienate people... like Andrew and ME, then I think mayhaps we can finally become an organization that is strong and will gain greater notoriety in the Austin and Central Texas community at large.
Here's the email I sent: Ye know, I gotta say, that I find this extremely frustrating. If the TexCelt website will continue to turn away Celtic music because it's not "authentic" enough for the purist's taste, then I strongly suggest we start building an ACA Central Texas email list that pretty much duplicates the whole TexCelt calendar. (waste of time, but seems necessary)
I know you think Celtic music and Ren Faires don't mix, but oddly (or sadly) enough, 80% of the music at ren faires in Texas is traditional Celtic Folk music. It seems extremely sad that I keep seeing these biases against the faire community when they faires keep Celtic music alive and growing among a different segment of the Celtic population.
What of the biggest ironies to me is that it seems like people can be songwriters from Ireland or Scotland or Australia, like Dougie MacLean, and immediately, be labeled Celtic. Yet, those of us in the U.S. must prove ourselves time and time again.
It's extremely frustrating.
For your reading pleasure, Do Renaissance Folk Fit in at Celtic Festivals?. Here's my latest email to the Board of the Austin Celtic Association:A couple years ago when I joined the board, I told Richard that the ACA should have their own email list. He convinced me that the TexasCelt weekly list served the community well and we didn't need to duplicate lists. So I let it die. Since then, I've found myself having to justify Every gig we do as to whether it is sufficiently "celtic" enough.
Now I GREATLY appreciate all the work that goes into the TexCeltic weekly ezine, but quite honestly, it seems to be limited by the very narrow Celtic viewpoint of Celtic purists. Consequently, it alienates a large portion of the Celtic community. One of my reasons for not running for another year with the Board is because I'm burnt out of having to Justify ourselves to the Celtic community. Yes, I'd say the majority probably support our music, but the narrow vision of a few limit our efforts.
Therefore, I for one, do not think we should focus our efforts promoting an ezine that only supports the limited few. We should establish our own weekly Central Texas Celtic events newsletter and focus promoting ALL the Celtic events in Central Texas whether it's Cluan, the Pubcrawlers, or even the Bedlam Bards.
A couple years ago, someone in the community suggested we should have a Ren Faire Celtic event. At long last, I've put together an event at Mother Egan's on February 18th to help promote Excalibur Fantasy Faire featuring three Central Texas Celtic bands that don't get any publicity because they perform at Renaissance Festivals and some perform at "Pub Venues". I'd sincerely like to see the ACA actively support of this event with attendance and our own email list.
In the meantime though, I'd like to suggest the creation of the new Central Texas Celtic Event Weekly.
Thanks!
Posted by Marc Gunn on Tuesday, January 27, 2004 |
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