WELCOME TO THE MODERN FOLK PROJECT!
This project will follow Maya Ayam, musician and folklorist, on her quest to redefine the term "folk music". Folk music is the music of the people. You and me people. We've come to associate it with a style of music. But perhaps it is something more.
PHILOSOPHY
As the U.S. was expanding as a country, portable instruments such as banjos and guitars made it easy for settlers to make music as they traveled from east to west and from the south to the north. Today, our portable instruments are our computers, smart phones, and tablets. Now anyone with a laptop has the potential to make music. We have evolved into a new era of folk music. No longer are we bound by genre, but by the human experience. This is the era of Modern Folk.
DETAILS
Maya Ayam will travel to 12 U.S. cities (see below) with a portable recording studio to interview and collaborate with local musicians. Joined by a photographer and videographer from each city, she will document how factors such as culture, location, storytelling, technology, and collaboration influence the music being created in America today. Free youth workshops will be given in each city. This journey will be made into an interactive eBook (enhanced with images, audio, and video), as well as a CD/DVD of the music and footage created.
CITIES
| Austin | D.C. | Minneapolis | New York |
| Boston | Los Angeles | Nashville | Portland |
| Chicago | Miami | New Orleans | San Francisco/Bay Area |