Fast Folk

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Fast Folk Musical Magazine
Fast Folk Musical Magazine
Fast Folk Musical Magazine
Editor Jack Hardy (1982 – 86)
Richard Meyer (1986 – 97)
Categories Music magazines
Folk music
Frequency
First issue February, 1982
Country United States
Language English

Fast Folk Musical Magazine (originally known as The Co-op), was a combination magazine and record album published from February 1982 to 1997. The magazine acted as a songwriter/performer cooperative, and was an outlet for singer-songwriters to release their first recordings.

Contents

[edit] History

In the late 1970s, Jack Hardy, David Massengill, and Rod MacDonald set up the Songwriters' Exchange in New York's Greenwich Village to give writers a forum to perform for their peers. This resulted in an album on Stash Records released in 1980. The group formed a cooperative that began organizing booking of Greenwich Village's SpeakEasy in 1981 and launched The Co-oP in February, 1982 which later was renamed Fast Folk and gained status as a non-profit organization.

The organization formed at a time when the cost of recording equipment and packaging of vinyl LPs were prohibitively expensive for the independent artist. The organization managed to document document serious, non-commercial songwriting first in the form of vinyl LPs and later as CDs. Although many of the writers were active in the Greenwich Village scene, the magazine included artists from across the United States and some international artists. Some of the included writers went on to commercial success, and some became influences in newly formed musical genres such as alternative country and anti-folk.

Alumni who recorded first for Fast Folk include Grammy Award-winners Lyle Lovett, Suzanne Vega, Julie Gold, Tracy Chapman and Shawn Colvin, as well as John Gorka, Michelle Shocked, Suzy Bogguss, Christine Lavin, Richard Shindell and Lucy Kaplansky of Cry Cry Cry. Over 600 writers and 2000 songs were documented. (See also Category:Fast Folk artists)

[edit] Archives

Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, now maintains an archive of Fast Folk which includes the master recording tapes, magazines and paper records of the organization.

Fast Folk: A Community of Singers & Songwriters
Fast Folk: A Community of Singers & Songwriters cover
Compilation album by Various Artist
Released Feb 26, 2002
Recorded Feb 1982 – Feb 1, 1997
Genre Folk music
Singer-songwriter
Label Smithsonian Folkways
Professional reviews

[edit] 2002 album

In February 2002, twenty years after the original publication of the magazine, Smithsonian Folkways released a two-CD compilation album of 36 tracks selected from the magazine's fifteen year history titled Fast Folk: A Community of Singers & Songwriters.

[edit] Track listing

Disc 1:

  1. "American Jerusalem" (Rod MacDonald) – 5:58
  2. "What's Wrong With the Man Upstairs" (David Massengill) – 4:38
  3. "Old Factory Town" (Gerry Devine) – 5:12
  4. "Just Need a Home (Spotlight)" (Lucy Kaplansky) – 3:38
  5. "Another Time and Place" (Dave Van Ronk) – 4:31
  6. "I Don't Know Why" (Shawn Colvin) – 3:45
  7. "Geza's Wailing Ways" (John Gorka) – 3:53
  8. "Ragman!" (David Indian) – 4:03
  9. "High Times" (Tom Intondi) – 4:36
  10. "Don't Ever Call Your Sweetheart by His Name" (Christine Lavin) – 2:21
  11. "Where Were You Last Night?" (Frank Christian) – 4:19
  12. "Introduction to Corpo Gracile" (Germana Pucci) – :28
  13. "Corpo Gracile" (Germana Pucci) – 5:13
  14. "Kilkelly, Ireland" (Laura Burns, Roger Rosen) – 5:58
  15. "Introduction to the Viking Rag" (Erik Frandsen) – 1:32
  16. "The Viking Rag" (Erik Frandsen) – 2:37
  17. "Forget-Me-Not" (Jack Hardy) – 4:20
  18. "Vacation" – 2:41

Disc 2:

  1. "Gypsy" (Suzanne Vega) – 4:16
  2. "Thirty Thousand Men" (Steve Forbert) – 4:31
  3. "Margaret" (Frank Tedesso) – 4:04
  4. "Share the Failure" (Elaine Silver) – 2:55
  5. "Bourbon as a Second Language" (Patrick John Brayer) – 3:47
  6. "King of Hearts" (Paul Kaplan) – 4:10
  7. "Heart on Ice" (Judith Zweiman) – 5:04
  8. "The Courier" (Richard Shindell) – 5:00
  9. "By Your Eyes" (Wendy Beckerman) – 3:22
  10. "Danton" (Lillie Palmer) – 4:27
  11. "Long Black Wall" (Michael Jerling) – 4:27
  12. "Railroad Bill" (Andy Breckman) – 3:32
  13. "Gravedigger" (Richard Julian) – 3:18
  14. "January Cold" (Richard Meyer) – 5:11
  15. "Disenchanted" (Eric Wood) – 4:37
  16. "Raphael" (Hugh Blumenfeld) – 3:35
  17. "Your Face" (Louise Taylor) – 3:18
  18. "Crazy Horse" (Josh Joffen & Late for Dinner) – 3:18

[edit] External links