on the cover / By Bob Doran

Living the folk life: Behind the scenes at the Humboldt Folklife Festival

(July 12, 2007)  You might see them busking on the street in Old Town, picking and singing in cafés and clubs, at open mic nights, jamming on a back porch, in a garage or a living room or on some festival stage — musicians of a wide range of ages and caliber living the folk life in their fashion.

They may not identify themselves as “folk” musicians, and who’s to say what that word means anyway? Webster defines a folk song as “a traditional or composed song typically characterized by stanzaic form, refrain and simplicity of melody,” but the word folk alone comes from Germanic roots and simply means “of the people.

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One thing for certain, there are plenty of people in Humboldt playing music with traditional roots. A fair share of them play string instruments — guitars, fiddles, banjos and the like. Some play, to varying degrees of success, traditional music that was popular in America’s southern mountains in the early part of the 20th century. Others favor tunes with Celtic roots, the jigs, reels and hornpipes that influenced the Appalachian sound.

The cream of local traditionalists and song composers, scores of them, will be performing out in Blue Lake and/or in Bayside between July 15 and 21 for the 29th Annual Humboldt Folklife Festival, a local tradition with deep, deep roots. You’ll find a full schedule of events in the center of this section. But first we’ll introduce you to some of the players who will be there picking, fiddling or making music in some fashion.

The Quiet Man

*Brooks Otis is a quiet, unassuming guy who’s played a major role in the local folk scene and in Humboldt’s arts world in general, serving on the boards for both the Humboldt Folklife Society and the Humboldt Arts Council. Otis’ folk credentials go back decades. For 30 years, he ran the premieracousticmusic instrument shop, Wildwood Music, with Mike “Spumoni” Manetas (mandolin player for The Compost Mountain Boys) before the two of them retired a few years ago to turn things over to a new generation. Now Otis spends his time playing in a number of bands: clarinet in a jazz combo, pedal steel in a country band, fiddle and banjo in an old timey outfit. He also plays roots music on the radio as host of “Monday Variety Pack” on KHSU.*

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