Folk Music Night 2.0

God called all of us to be more than consumers. We receive from Him in order to give to others — and this is true in all areas of life. Sometimes we give our specialty, so that others can benefit. Sometimes we give our participation, so that we can all make something together.

Not everything is participatory. If you need brain surgery, you don’t want community participation in that — you want a specialist. But if we treat everything that way — and in consumer culture, we do — then we lose something valuable.

When we all get together to dance, or play music, or make bread, we don’t just get dance, music, or bread. We get community. When it comes to music, this means that folk is not just another genre of music along with rock, blues and pop. It’s a different way of experiencing music. It’s music made by average folks together — music that you sing and play, not just music that you listen to. (And it’s also the only kind of music that most people in the world ever had, before the invention of modern recording equipment.)

It’s great that through good-quality recordings, we have access to the best musicians in the world, but if the price we paid for Spotify and Pandora was giving up our ability to make music together, we paid too much.

Fortunately, we can have our cake and eat it too. We just have to get together and do it!

And we’re going to. Check out the details below.

Where: South Broadway Center (4356 S Broadway in Englewood)

When: 4-5:30 on Sunday, June 11.

This time, we’ve teamed up with our friend, Lori Sanderson, and she prefers a “song circle” style. Lori will M.C., but we’ll sit in a circle, and everyone will have a chance to lead a song. If you have any musical aptitude or experience, please take some time before the event to come up with a song to lead! (Preferably something that is easy to participate with.) Also, please send me a copy of the song (with guitar chords if possible) and I’ll print copies for everyone. We’ll also sing a couple of the favorite songs from our last music night.

Again, this is a night of music making. This is not a concert. Bring an instrument, bring your kids, bring some neighbors. Let’s make music together!