Folk Matters
PFS presents folk music icon Gordon Bok
by J. Michael Kearsey
The Portland FolkMusic Society is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting folk music and arts in the greater Portland area. The mission of the organization is to preserve, present and promote folk music and arts.
This is the 13th season for the PFS Third Friday concerts; this month Maine folk music icon Gordon Bok performs on Friday, Sept. 19, 7:30 p.m. at Carvlin Hall, located at 1636 S.E. Hickory St., just north of S.E. Division at 16th near the New Seasons Market.
Gordon Bok is from Maine, a state just about as far from Oregon as you can get. He rarely travels this far from home, but he is out on tour to support a new CD, simply titled, In Concert. The CD draws from live shows in 2006 and 2007. His performances draw on 40 years of songwriting, song finding and collaborating with his many friends from all over the world. He sings, in the original languages, on folk songs from Italy, Portugal, Mongolia, French Canada, Latin America and the Gaelic Hebrides, among other places.
After graduating from high school in Camden, on the rugged mid-Maine coast, Bok worked on the boats in the summer months, while the rest of the year, he worked in Philadelphia and other cities as a carpenter and teacher. It was there that he found a thriving folk music scene and began performing. Dissatisfied with the images generally portrayed of people who work on the water, he began to write songs based on the experiences of those he knew - real people whose language was honest, whose feelings were credible. These early works, songs like Bay of Fundy, began to get attention, as did his rich voice and fluid guitar work. Paul Stookey, of the folk trio Peter, Paul, and Mary, produced Bok's first album for Verve in1964.
At that time of folk music's great revival, Bok became a leader in preserving, collecting, creating and sharing a wide variety of rich and intensely beautiful songs of both land and sea. His mastery of both 6- and 12-string guitars, added to his already well-developed vocal expression, creates an unmistakable style that has carried him through decades of being one of America's most cherished folk artists. He has made more than 20 albums and many other musicians including Archie Fisher, Liam Clancy and Tommy Makem have recorded his songs. In addition, his music has been used in films and published in folk music anthologies, including Rise Up Singing and his own collections, Time and The Flying Snow and One To Sing, One To Haul.
As much energy as Bok invests in making songs -- many of which (Dillan Bay, The Hills of Isle au Haut, Turning Toward the Morning) have grown permanent roots in the rough shores of New England -- he is equally energetic as a folklorist and gatherer of songs. He is also a master artist/craftsman mainly dealing with sea themes done in wood carvings, which he developed quite naturally from growing up around woodworkers. Already an accomplished instrument builder and furniture maker, he took up woodcarving in the mid '70s when he inherited his mother's carving tools. Over the past 30 years, when not performing and recording, Bok has quietly worked out his music and memories in bas-relief.
"The music of Maine folk singer Bok is like a universe unto itself, a roughhewn land filled with hardscrabble people, rascals in high places and a natural world that is both cruel and kind, deadly and nurturing. On a long-awaited, fireside-friendly live album, Gordon Bok in Concert, he sings about mining disasters and drunken fisherman, the last dreams of drowning men and the gentle sound of neighbors helping neighbors. His glorious bass-baritone is a bit more frayed now, like good leather softened from years of use. But that only makes his ballads more believable, as he roams the long trail of memory, from the wild and hurried passions of our youth, to the older joy that comes from knowing the real value of a quiet day." (Scott Alarik, The Boston Globe)
Admission for the show is $10 for PFS members, $12 general admission, $5 ages 12-18. Kids under 12 years of age are free. There are no advance sales, just tickets at the door. There is no smoking and no alcohol, but there are food and beverages available and it is a relaxed and enjoyable spot to bring the family or meet friends-or make new friends who love folk music!
Membership in the Portland FolkMusic Society offers a variety of experiences. Details can be found at the PFS website (www.portlandfolkmusic.org), a fascinating site that will help amateur and professionals interested in Portland's diverse Folk scene see what is going on every week of the year.