Featured Filkers #8: Lauren Cox

The filk community is a quirky amalgam of generations and attitudes. You'll find a good many senior citizens and middle-aged people, but the newest crop of filkers is coming out of the woodwork. Beware the murderous Millennials. We're taking aim at your french fries, your boredom, and your dubious misconceptions about the youth.

Just look at that determined face. 

Photo by Rob Wynne. 

I am privileged to know one of filk's youngest rising stars in person, and she is well worth being a Featured Filker. Today's post is about Lauren Cox.

Keeping her composure, despite attempted cat sabotage.
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From my perspective, Lauren burst onto the scene in song circles at the Ohio Valley Filk Festival in 2016. But in two short years, she has already had concerts at OVFF, GAFilk, Confluence, and Worldcon 74(!) in Kansas City, also known as MidAmeriCon II. As of last month, she was just selected as the Interfilk Guest for Conflikt 2019, a filk convention in Seattle. She gets around. Primarily in a car, with her friend and veteran filker Cat Faber. As a fellow Tennessean, Cat was the one responsible for Lauren's introduction to the filk community. They still make music together in a local band called Yonder and Back. Here's the whole group, complete with a glorious backdrop.

Photo by Anne Armstrong.

Lauren is an artistic Jill-of-all-trades, with one foot in the visual arts, the other in the journalism world, and both hands deep in the realm of music. Besides graduating in May with her Bachelor's in photography, she also works as a darkroom technician and does graphic design and copy editing for the local newspaper. Yet somehow she has time to also be an up-and-coming singer and songwriter. Oh, did I mention she plays all the instruments? Banjo, mandolin, guitar, ukulele, piano ... autoharp ... marimba.

Maybe like this guy. With one more cat.

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Lauren has switched string instruments four times in one concert before. It's a sight to see. But even with just one instrument, it's wonderful to watch her do her thing. Her classic folky soprano is perfect not only for her original works, such as the song in the first video or this delightful ditty about her hyperactive felines, but also for covering artists like Anaïs Mitchell, Joan Shelley, and others. Here's her take on a song by Kate Wolf, complete with artistic sepia-tone video (as befits someone majoring in visual media).

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Lauren is working on making her first album a reality. It's an exciting time to be in filk. What more can I say? I only wish someone had captured her performing "Part of This World," her heartfelt tribute to all things filk. It's written to the tune of the similarly-named song from The Little Mermaid. But I'm going to be seeing her at Filk Ontario in a few short months, so maybe that will be remedied sooner rather than later. I am doing the "excellent fingers" as we speak. In the meantime, go check out her other single on Bandcamp, give her Facebook page some love, and come to a filk con. She'll probably be there, and you might find your new favorite song.

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A Personal History of Filk, Part 2

For the start of the new year, I'm going to backtrack a little. I've talked about some of the contributors to the current filk scene in Featured Filkers posts, and I will continue to do so, but there is a wealth of classic filk floating around the Internet just waiting to be discovered by new listeners.

More specifically, I'd like to introduce you to more of my personal history of filk.

Hey, look, it's baby me with the Got Filk shirt. Yes, that's a Lego dulcimer. Behold. 

Photo by Rob Wynne. 

Aside from songs by Mercedes Lackey, there are lots of additional filk songs that I remember hearing for the first time. They're the songs that made me realize I had found my people. They gave me that warm, fuzzy feeling you get at a con, but now the feeling was portable. You may have noticed that my favorite classic filk song, according to my TFI bio, is one called "Merlin," written by Doug McArthur and sung by Kathy Mar. Incidentally, I thought for years that it was also written by Kathy Mar, but the lines start to blur very quickly in filk. Everyone covers everyone else, even more so than in popular music.

In any case, I did not discover "Merlin" at The Ohio Valley Filk Festival (OVFF) or Marcon, but rather in my college dorm room while visiting with a friend. It turned out he also liked filk, and I distinctly remember listening to this song on Windows Media Player, complete with those trippy visualizations from the mid-2000s.

It made quite an impression. 

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What struck me about it was the cool alternate interpretation of a King Arthur tale, one that still retained the mystique of the traditional lore. It turns out this quality that I enjoyed so much is one of filk's defining attributes lately, namely, the tendency to fracture those fairy tales as hard as you possibly can. It's a wonderful thing, and it has shaped my own songwriting.

On the other end of the spectrum, we have little tunes like Heather Rose Jones' "Black Widows in the Privy," delightfully sung by Julia Ecklar. It's short and to-the-point, but nevertheless I remember it quite well. The juxtaposition of nasty lyrics with a fast, bouncy tune amused me for some reason. For what it's worth, dark humor is another notable feature of many filk songs.

 Like in this performance of “The Wreck of the Crash of the Easthill Mining Disaster” by Brooke Abbey, complete with props. Photo by Walter Korynkiewicz.

There are many other songs from my early filk days that I could mention, but I'll end with the topic of Rudyard Kipling. If you aren't familiar with this particular early 20th century writer, let's just say he was, among many other things, an extremely prolific poet who wrote in traditional verse. Filkers love him. That is to say, filkers love him. So much so, that writing music to Kipling's poetry and singing it in a filk circle is as legitimate as performing any other song that might pop up. I have even heard the verb "to Kipple," used in all seriousness during a circle, to refer to following one Kipling musical adaptation with another.

 

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"Female of the Species" was the first Kipling poem set to music that I ever heard. It's a catchy melody written by Leslie Fish and sung by Julia Ecklar, and whether Kipling meant it to be complimentary or insulting is beside the point. What matters is that the fiercely feminist filk community made this song its own. Taking other entities, writings, media, what have you, and making them their own is often what filkers do best. Keep this in mind when we get to Part 3.

For now, discover ye some classic filk. That's an order. 

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Recap of 2017 & Our 2018 Wishlist

2017 was a year full of fandom, friendship, and fun! From the moments that made us laugh to the moments that made us cry, here's our reaction to everything 2017 brought us. In addition, join us as we assemble our wishlists for 2018! Major spoilers must be highlighted to read. Like this: Happy 2018!

KELLY CHAPLIN

Best of 2017

• Finishing the Shades of Magic series and finally reading the wonder that is A Conjuring of Light by V.E. Schwab. 
• Playing (and owning) Kingdom Hearts 1.5 + 2.5 and 2.8. They were as magical as I had hoped. New content in 2.8 as well, where you get to play as Aqua on the Unreal Engine (used to make Kingdom Hearts 3).
• Listening to the Kingdom Hearts Orchestra and experiencing all the joy and sadness threaded through the KH soundtrack. I also listened to Yoko Shimomura play a piano solo and even saw Tetsuya Nomura come out on the stage to thank everyone for coming.
• Tried my hand at Persona 5. It was truly involved, truly magnificent.
• Watching Beauty and the Beast AND Power Rangers in theaters.
• Reading The Disappearances by Emily Bain Murphy! It was something different from anything else I had ever read.
• Finally reading The Wishing Spell by Chris Colfer and realizing it’s as good as everyone has been saying.  
• Reading The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden and HOLY COW, it was as darkly beautiful as any fairy tale I’ve ever read.
• Gaming on the Switch for the first time. I was able to play Nine Parchments (fun to play with friends) and Skyrim (I had never played it before!).
• Watching the Netflix original Marvel series Jessica Jones, Daredevil, and Luke Cage.
• Attending Colossalcon (convention in Ohio!) AND Kupocon (Final Fantasy convention in Canada).

Hopes for 2018

• Reading Reaper at the Gates by Sabaa Tahir! I’ve been waiting quite some time for this.
• Reading Legendary by Stephanie Garber. I enjoyed Caraval and intend to continue the story.
• Picking up Batman: Nightwalker by Marie Lu (Batman is my favorite superhero! I’m sure it will be good!)
• Read something about The Cruel Prince by Holly Black this past year. It sounded intriguing, so I'm sure I'll pick it up. 
• Finally playing KINGDOM HEARTS 3, GOSH DARN IT. It’s coming out this year!!!
• Replaying Final Fantasy XV and all the downloadable content that’s been added. Everything new that they want to add will be ending in 2018, so I’ll be able to play everything intended to go into the game.
• Reading ALL the Rick Riordan series. I’m so very close.
• Once again, going to Colossalcon.
• New Pokemon game on the Switch?? Maybe?
• Final Fantasy VII remake?? Even more maybe??
• There’s a rumor that one of my all-time favorite books, All the Bright Places, is being made into a movie and that it might be released this year.
• Seeing Han Solo, A Wrinkle in Time, The Incredibles 2, the new Fantastic Beasts movie, and Wreck It Ralph 2.

GABRIELLE GOLD

Best of 2017

⦁ Seeing The Last Jedi and being delighted that it was actually very good. I was a little worried about it, but my fears were laid to rest. I heart grumpy old man Luke.
⦁ Going to Confluence, a sci-fi/fantasy convention in Pittsburgh, for the second time. I got to see Cheshire Moon perform live again. It had been too long. There were also awesome roommates and an unexpected $100 bill involved. Good times.
⦁ Guillermo del Toro’s comeback with The Shape of Water. It has already won several awards, and it had the good old fairy tale-style ambiance to it, just like Pan’s Labyrinth did. I missed that.
⦁ Finally seeing Moana on New Year’s Eve. It’s just barely a 2017 moment, and it took me way too long in the first place. Tamatoa is the Disney monster I didn’t know I needed.
⦁ Being invited as a guest to a filk convention in Boston…in the middle of watching someone else’s filk concert at Marcon. There was much rejoicing, thankfully out in the hall, not in the concert space.

Hopes for 2018

⦁ That I nail my concert in Boston! Durr. Lots of prep work to do.
⦁ That Avengers: Infinity War is worth the hype. I was kind of disappointed with Avengers: Age of Ultron, but I loved the first movie. I almost didn’t recognize Cap in the new trailers with that beard, but it’s not a bad look. As a side note, I am also looking forward to Black Panther a lot. It will be nice to have a completely different cultural setting.
⦁ That I can attend a convention in the Toronto area, Filk Ontario (FKO), for the first time. It’s coming up soon in April, and it would be super sweet if I can pull it off. More Canadian content! Also, the guest of honor is Leslie Hudson, and she is awesome.
⦁ That I fall back in love with my Kindle. I read more in 2017 than I had the previous years, but my reading frequency tapered off during the winter months. There are so many fantasy books to choose from, and I’m hoping I strike gold the way I did in 2016. Six of Crows and A Darker Shade of Magic for the win.

HAYLA R.

Best of 2017 

• Stranger Things Season 2

I binged the season twice when it came out. I loved the first season, but I think I love the second even more. I loved the introduction of the new characters: Bob, Max, and Billy, and also getting to know more about Eleven’s past.

• BoJack Horseman Season 4

Dealing with issues of sexual identity, parental abuse, and fatherhood (to name only a few), this season continued the show’s depth and dark humor.

• The Walking Dead Seasons 7b and 8a

I know I am in the minority, but the last few seasons of the show have been my favorite. I just whole-heartedly love Negan and the conflicts that he and the Saviors bring to Rick’s gang.

• Gotham Season 3b

Seeing the Riddler grapple with his feelings for Oswald in the second half of season 3 was a personal highlight (Nygmobblepot is my OTP). Also amazing was having Jerome and Bruce going head to head and setting up the future Joker/Batman conflicts.

• Alien Covenant 

The continuation of the Alien prequel series is my personal favorite of the franchise. The gothic overtones and attention to scenery details (such as the drawings in David’s laboratory) were particularly breathtaking.

• Get Out

A truly original horror film is rare in our current age of reboots and sequels. But this one was brilliant. I don’t want to give anything away. Do yourself a favor and see it.

• Maplecroft

Discovering the author Cherie Priest was a huge highlight. This book was a Lovecraftian spin on the Lizzie Borden story. I will be reading all her other books, as well.

Wishlist for 2018

• The Walking Dead comics

I want to read through The Walking Dead comics this year. I hope they are as good (or better) as the show.

• Aquaman film

I am pleased with the casting of Jason Momoa but, as a long-time fan of the hero, I have a little bit of anxiety about the script, and I hope it does the character justice.

• Deadpool 2 

...will be amazing. I’m just stoked to see it!

• Gotham Season 4b

A Nygmobblepot happy ending. They’re my OTP, and this has been my Gotham wish since Season 3a.

• The Walking Dead

More Negan please! He is a fascinating character, and his stupid lines make me laugh out loud.

JANA RUTH

Best moments of Gotham in 2017

• Bruce defeats a resurrected Jerome Valeska and declares "I will not kill."
• Ed Nygma officially becomes the Riddler, bowler hat and all.
• Selina uses her whip once and for all.
• Bruce saves a family of three from a mugger (just like the one who killed his parents) and dons his vigilante persona for the first time.
• Bruce acts like a brat at Penguin's auction and basically plays everyone.

SCOTT MITCHELL

Best of 2017

⦁ Seeing Your Name in theaters. It's a really really good movie and not just Freaky Friday in Japan like the trailer suggests.
⦁ Game of Thrones finally confirming what fans had hoped for a very very long time. We still need the book to come out, but hey, show endgame incoming... in 2019.
⦁ Thank you Intelligent Systems for making Fire Emblem Echoes as good as it was. It was an excellent callback to the past and an apology letter for Camilla's existence in Fates.
⦁ Seeing Adam Savage live in Brain Candy at Playhouse Square armed with a ping pong ball machine gun was a childhood dream come true for me.

Disappointments of 2017

⦁ Valerian and the City of 1000 Planets. Box office bomb with a main actor who keeps trying to sound like Batman and a main actress who is the female equivalent of Derek Zoolander.
⦁ Now that the initial shock of Attack on Titan's premise has worn off, season 2 shows that the only place to go is down. This season was like 70% flashbacks, 20% sitting in trees and 10% Armin angrily eating D-rations.
⦁ Sherlock Season 4, specifically the last episode. I'm sure plenty will disagree, but I just feel like they've run out of ideas at this point. The Norbury scene was excellent though.

Hopes for 2018

⦁ Hoping that season 2 of Westworld lives up to the hype as season 1 is one of a very small number of shows that I've actually truly binged.
⦁ I hope I finally get through the rather embarrassing book backlog I've accumulated at this point. Curse you, library sales and your low prices...
⦁ I still can't believe that Spice and Wolf got a sequel series as adventure, romantic comedy and medieval economics usually don't mix. Somehow it did happen and I'm going to enjoy every moment of it.

SKY DESTRIAN

Best of 2017

• This was the first year I got to watch the Harry Potter films, and I also received Gryffindor pajama pants for Christmas, wrote about being a Gryffindor, and just sank deeper into the Harry Potter fandom in general. I absolutely loved it.
• Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 was one of the best movies of the year and one of the best movies of all time. That soundtrack colored the entirety of my year, and I don't regret a second.
• But that's not to say that was the only great movie of 2017... there were so many other fantastic films. Logan, Baby Driver, Spider-man: Homecoming, and Wonder Woman, just to name a few.
• I also finally watched some movies I hadn't gotten a chance to see: Moana, Mad Max: Fury Road, Lion, Arrival, Gifted, Top Gun... and they were all amazing.
• My mom, sister, and I watched all six seasons of Parenthood, and it was an incredible roller coaster.
• The Last Jedi was a highlight and brought a sense of wonder to the galaxy in a way that I hadn't sensed before. I loved it.
• Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 4 was its best one yet, in my opinion. Absolutely mindblowing.
• Reading Radio Silence by Alice Oseman and Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia: two books that made me cry, found me where I was, and offered a light in the darkness to show me I wasn't alone.
• Stranger Things was just as good as I hoped it would be. Honestly amazing. I'm in love with Steve Harrington now, thank you.
• In the last month or two of 2017, I discovered the joy of podcasts for myself. The Adventure Zone (and all of the McElroy productions), Alice Isn't Dead, The Bright Sessions... there's a whole world of stories out there, and it's exceptional.
• THERE. IS. FINALLY. A. BLACK. WIDOW. MOVIE. IN. PRODUCTION. It's not 100% guaranteed, and it's long overdue, but I'm taking it!

Worst of 2017

• Jane the Virgin: Losing Michael Cordero... I'm still not over it. Jane the Virgin hasn't been the same again, and neither have I.
• Logan: Seeing Professer X aka my childhood hero Patrick Stewart die on screen was really rough. Then to have Logan himself die a little later... that movie was so much to handle.
• The Last Jedi: It's bittersweet and difficult knowing this will be Carrie Fisher's last Star Wars movie. That said, I was happy with the final product.

Hopes for 2017

• I hope that I can get back into reading again--it's been one of the highlights of the past few years for me. I kind of got out of the habit recently, but I miss it.
• More development on the Black Widow movie (this will go on my list until we get it. Fingers crossed!).
• A Kamala Khan movie or TV show.
• A Kate Bishop Netflix show based off the Hawkeye comics. Please! We've been wanting this for years!
• Representation within Marvel for people of color, women of color, disabled characters, LGBTQ characters, and characters of any background. Runaways is one amazing example, but we can always do better.
• More representation, period.
• Black Panther and Deadpool 2!!! I can't wait.
• May Infinity War not be awful.
• May The Incredibles 2 live up to fifteen years of desperate waiting.
• May Tony Stark and Steve Rogers not die (and if they must, let it be a worthy death). 
• May 2018 be a fantastic, fabulous fandom year.

What are your fandom hopes and dreams for 2018? Let us know in the comments!

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Featured Filkers #7: Urban Tapestry

Let's take a trip back to Ontario for a moment. As filkers would say in circle, "And now for more Canadian content." We've already heard beautiful Celtic tunes by Heather Dale, but there's a ton of great Canadian filk out there. Today's Featured Filkers form a trio whose songs range from whimsical to mournful to just plain inspiring. They're called Urban Tapestry, and everything they weave has their own unique brand of class.

Photo collage provided by featured artist.

Urban Tapestry is Jodi Krangle, Allison Durno, and Debbie Ohi. Jodi is no stranger to professional vocal work. A voice-over artist by trade, she has experience narrating for Slice Network and HGTV, and came out with her own jazz album in 2015. Her alto voice is truly something to hear, and her song "The Lady" won a Pegasus Award for Best Filk Song in 2004. She is a force to be reckoned with. Allison Durno has been making music for at least twenty years, and probably longer, if my Googling is any indication. She grounds Urban Tapestry with her excellent guitar-playing. Debbie Ohi is a talented flutist, and her contributions to the band give their music a special depth. Witness them in action here, playing a classic filk song by Lloyd Landa titled "I Am Stardust."

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All three women are vocalists, often in haunting close harmony, and it makes their sound that much richer. An example is their tribute to the magic of reading, "Another Story." They put close harmony to effective use in songs with much lighter moods, too. Two of these, "My Jalapeno Man" and "Sex and Chocolate," were nominated for Pegasus Awards, and the former won in its category of Best Food/Drink Song. Urban Tapestry is skilled at taking masterful tunes and making them silly when they want to. They're also good at acting silly when they want to.

Photo by Dave Weingart.

Jodi, Allison, and Debbie are also all experienced songwriters, and compositions from each of them are included in their albums and live performances. "My Jalapeno Man" was one of Debbie's creations. Another of her fun songs has been adopted as a yearly tradition in song circles at FilkOntario (FKO), a convention in Toronto much like the Ohio Valley Filk Festival (OVFF). The song is called, appropriately, "Home to FilkOntario," and their performance at FKO can be seen below.

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As you can see, their styles and subjects are all over the place in a very good way. There are plenty of space songs to go 'round, from the faster-paced "Starsoul" (which also won a Pegasus Award for Best Exploration Song) to the slow, somber beauty of "The Ancient Yearning." There's lots of general humor, as evidenced by their a cappella ditty about the BFF kind of true friendship, and more specific fan-based humor, like this love song to Captain Jean-Luc Picard. There are songs about books, songs about TV shows, songs about online dating or bad credit . . . all sorts of glorious stuff.

Photo by Walter Korynkiewicz.

If you're ready to hear more, or to own a piece of this highly enjoyable repertoire, they have a store on CD Baby. All three of their albums are available for purchase there. Want more general info? Go to their website. You might have to do a bit of digging for the latest news, but it's worth it, and they do have a convenient search function that helps in this endeavor. Did I mention they have a mockumentary? It looks hilarious, and it's only available on DVD. So go ahead, give Canada some love. Treat yourself. It's a good deal.

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Featured Filkers #6: The Faithful Sidekicks

It may not seem like it based on my previous Featured Filker posts, but a huge chunk of what defines filk is its capacity for silliness. In fact, the verb "to filk" has become synonymous in this community with "to write a ridiculous parody," regardless of the topic. For example: "Has anyone ever filked a Lady Gaga song before?" (Answer in the comments if you dare.)

Parody is one of the central elements of filk culture, but that's another post. What I want to talk about today are hilarious original songs about things like Star Wars and cruelty to coffee beans. I want to talk about The Faithful Sidekicks.

Photo provided by featured artist.

 I had no idea who Eric Distad was in 2014, when he ascended the Ohio Valley Filk Festival (OVFF) stage during the annual songwriting competition and started to play his guitar. It seems like this is usually how I hear about up-and-coming cool people. The theme was "A Sticky Situation." Eric took this rather literally, to excellent effect. Below is a video of him performing "A Song of Stick Pins," which won first place in the contest. It speaks for itself.

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Incidentally, 2014 is the same year that Eric and his wife Jen began playing under the name of The Faithful Sidekicks. Eric and Jen had been writing and performing music together for much longer beforehand, but it wasn't until 2014 that they devoted an entire act to nerdy goodness. As The Faithful Sidekicks, they tend towards the wacky in styles ranging from alternative rock to folk ballads. You'll often see Jen contributing via bass guitar as Eric plays lead and does the primary vocals, but both of them are skilled with other instruments such as mandolin, concertina, and bouzouki.

Whatever the vehicle for their music, it is always chock full of genuine geek humor. You know they take their nerdiness seriously (or entirely unseriously) when they come out with a love song written entirely in Structured Query Language. Eric and Jen have a special routine for this one.

Photo provided by featured artist.

As you can see, the references get very specific, folks. I will love them forever simply for writing a dance number entirely about the mysterious technology featured in the movie Galaxy Quest, a device known as the Omega 13. It is rather catchy, if I do say so myself. Other notable examples of such specificity include "We’re Dragons (an Open Letter to Cressida Cowell from Smaug)," which lambasts the cuteness of How to Train Your Dragon, or "Time Traveler," which basically exists in order to reference as many sci-fi books and TV shows as possible. For the uninitiated, they do have a good number of more general songs, such as the IT guy's oddly upbeat lament entitled "Ticket Open." 

Finally, let's come back to Star Wars. It seems to be a favorite subject, given the number of songs they have written about the franchise. Here they are at FilkOntario 2016 playing the song they are probably best-known for, "Han Solo for President."

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Like this combination of musical variety, wit, and delightfully detailed shout-outs? The Faithful Sidekicks currently have an album available for purchase here, and are wrapping up work on their second album, most likely called "Achievement Unlocked." To listen to all of the songs mentioned in this post, or to find more audio and video, news about the band, and information on their live shows, you can go to their website. If you're local to the Columbus, OH area, they will be hosting a workshop on songwriting to a deadline at OVFF this year. Come and meet them in person! If you can't make it, at least be sure to check out the rest of their repertoire. You won't regret it.

What lesser-known book, movie, or TV show do you think 

deserves a filk song? Let us know in the comments!

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Featured Filkers #4: Heather Dale

What comes to mind when you hear the word "Celtic"? Hopefully not a mispronounced sports team, given this crowd. Maybe Irish crosses? Medieval metalwork? Some darn good fiddle-playing? All of those are valid. But being the filk geek that I am, I tend to think of Heather Dale.

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A powerhouse in the filk community, the Society for Creative Anachronism, and far beyond, Heather Dale epitomizes the Celtic folk spirit. She bills her music as "Modern Celtic," and you do hear some electric guitar, synthesized instruments, and jazz influence in her recordings. But to me, she is easily the most true-to-form, lively, and heartfelt Celtic filker out there, bodhran at the ready. (A bodhran is an Irish hand drum.) Here she is at the Ohio Valley Filk Festival (OVFF) with her frequent performance partner, Ben Deschamps.

(Photo by Michael Pereckas.)

Heather infuses every song she writes with a sense of majestic days gone by, whether the subject is ancient, medieval, or timeless. She has won several Pegasus Awards in different years, including Best Romantic Song, Best Performer, Best Writer/Composer, and Best Filk Song for "Joan." Her eminently singable tunes are a joy to listen to, like this mesmerizing performance of "The Maiden and the Selkie" with members of her group, the Heather Dale Band.

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Perhaps she is best known for her song cycle about Arthurian legends, specifically the haunting song "Mordred's Lullaby." It has over 12 million views on YouTube, which is a very big number. While I love this song to pieces for its unusual insight into the tragic character of Mordred, I am also a huge fan of less-discussed songs like "Kingsword" and "The Prydwen Sails Again." In these two songs, she seamlessly blends traditional and modern sounds to create something all her own, and it is fantastic.

Not limiting herself to Celtic folklore, Heather dips her toes in all sorts of mythical waters. You can find Norse and Greek mythology, medieval history, and even a song about Baba Yaga in the mix.  Below is the Heather Dale Band performing "Sedna," a tale of the Inuit ocean goddess.

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In terms of technical know-how, Heather is a Renaissance woman. In addition to singing and playing the bodhran, she puts her skills with several other instruments to good use. Those instruments include the harp, alto recorder, two kinds of dulcimer, Irish flute, bowed psaltery, and of course, the piano. While I'm bombarding you with gorgeous YouTube videos, here's the official music video for "Fortune," a carpe diem song for voice and piano in classic Heather style.

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Let's not forget that Heather also produced her own musical, Queens of Avalon. (Yes, you read that correctly.) She describes it on her website as "the famous story of Camelot, but surprisingly reinterpreted from a woman’s perspective." She's also a plain old fun and friendly person, and I'm glad I've had a few chances to talk to her. I hope for many more.

Check out her website if you're looking for music to purchase, more videos, more information about Heather and her band, and just about anything else you want to know. She has a whopping twelve albums currently available there and on Bandcamp, in addition to the free one entitled Perpetual Gift. Free high-quality recordings? Yes, please. I told you she's a nice person. Now go listen to her stuff. And listen. And listen ....

Who is your favorite Celtic-inspired singer? Let us know in the comments!

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Featured Filkers #3: Dr. Mary Crowell

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: filk transcends musical styles. Our previous two Featured Filkers were both on the folk and folk-rock side of the spectrum, but there's a wide world of nerdy jazz out there, too. In the filk community, the best-established of these sultry voices is none other than Dr. Mary Crowell. She wields her doctoral degree in Musical Arts (DMA) with power and grace, so strangers beware: don't leave off the prefix, or she will be quite displeased.

Photograph by Sunnie Larson.

Mary has taught piano and music composition for over twenty years, both at Calhoun Community College in Alabama and as a private instructor. I first saw her perform some ten years ago at the Ohio Valley Filk Festival (OVFF) and other conventions, making magic on stage with her beautiful voice and her ever-present keyboard. Her other favorite instrument is the clarinet.

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When it comes to writing music, she means Serious Business. But as the song below demonstrates, the subjects of her endlessly inventive jazz and blues variations can sometimes be downright silly. Welcome to the official music video of "I Put My Low Stat," an exercise in D&D ridiculousness that won a Pegasus Award for Best Gaming Song in 2012.

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Other songs of hers in the same humorous vein are "Legolas" and "Keep Your Christmas out of October." The majority of her lyrics, however, are either mischievous and playful or introspective. I'd pin her favorite topics as mythology and technology, except when she writes songs about coffee, or the change of seasons, or the amazing but really hard to categorize "Patchwork Cliché."

This basically sums up any attempts to explain "Patchwork Cliché."
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Suffice to say, the themes of her songs are wide open, but almost always in that satisfying jazzy mode. She had a concert at MarCon this past May, and it was tons of fun. Here she is at that concert, complete with tiara:

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One song at MarCon even involved audience participation with purple pool noodle tentacles. There was much rejoicing.

In addition to performing solo, Mary belongs to The Three Weird Sisters, which at one point was comprised of four women. That's filk for you. She is also at the helm of Play It With Moxie, a classy ensemble of nine. Play It With Moxie won the Best Performer Pegasus Award in 2016, and who can blame the judges? They always put on a smokin' hot show. Here's Mary with a few of her Play It With Moxie band mates at OVFF.

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I mentioned before that collaborations are a big part of filk. Mary is highly sought-after by other performers for her keyboard playing, which is rare in the filk community compared to string instruments like guitar and ukulele. You'll often find her accompanying filkers other than her regular band members, and she adds a special touch.

Want to get your hands on some of this goodness? She currently has three solo albums, her first album with the Three Weird Sisters, and a live album of songs by Play It With Moxie available for purchase. For more general information and links to Mary's social media, you can go here.

I will leave you with a warning: beware the Mary earworms. They come in the night. That is all.

What instrument, besides guitar and its siblings, makes you swoon for a song? Let us know in the comments!

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Star Genetics

by Gabrielle Gold 

They say a trait your children lack
May not be its cessation,
Sometimes the empire strikes back
And skips a generation.

They named their son for Obi-Wan,
Who’s also known as Ben,
The child who was Jedi spawn
Turned into Kylo Ren.

With balance Kylo’s unconcerned,
He gave up rules and mores,
He took the path that Vader learned,
What is this, the Clone Wars?

Weak Skywalker Y chromosomes
Have been a tired trope,
But shippers writing Reylo tomes
Give Star Wars a new hope.

Star Wars logo property of Lucas Film.

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Featured Filkers #2: Random Fractions

Some performers crave a full stage. Some say three's a crowd. Then there's Random Fractions, a band comprised of a core trio along with whoever happens to come along for the ride. This versatile group of filkers blends genres, instruments, and vibes to create shows that are as fun to experience as they are hard to describe. I'm going to try my best, though.

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When I heard Cathy McManamon play "Avalon" in a filk circle some seven years ago, I was impressed by her ability to take a fantastical topic and make both the lyrics and melody relatable to anyone, inside or outside the filk community. Her heartfelt drumming, strong guitar-playing, and pleasant alto are enjoyable on their own, but Cathy's gradual infiltration of several filk bands resulted in some really rich musical creations. Formerly known as Three-Fifths but adjusted for their frequent permutations, Random Fractions is the one that most often comes to mind.

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The above video shows Random Fractions playing "Scarlet Town," their Pegasus Award-nominated song about the Titanic. It's a great showcase of Cathy with the other two core members, Daniel Gunderson (Gundo to most) and Jason Neerenberg. Gundo's chief musical inspiration is classic rock, and it shows through his Random Fractions contributions. He's a talented musician on a number of instruments, including guitar, electric guitar, keyboard, drums, and things I'm likely not aware of yet. Jason's primary instrument is bass guitar, and he rocks it pretty hard. Though Cathy is the default vocalist, Gundo and Jason can often be found harmonizing along with her, and sometimes take vocal center stage.

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Let's not forget the reason for the band's name. Below is a photo from a Random Fractions concert at the Ohio Valley Filk Festival (OVFF) featuring two common partners in crime who play cello and fiddle.

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It's difficult to pin down their music as anything more specific than "awesome." They say a lot with few words, telling mystical stories about dragons or simply reminding us of the listeners in our lives. Random Fractions' mix of folk, rock, and whatever else suits their fancy is distinct from most filk bands, borrowing just enough from mainstream music to turn something poignant and introspective into a lively, accessible performance.

Along with their original compositions, Random Fractions plays covers of big-time rock and folk stars, as well as songs by other filkers. The latter category includes tunes like SJ Tucker's "Were-owl" and Dave Carter's "Tanglewood Tree." For their beautiful rendition of Carter's song, you can go here.

Check out their website for more info, and to see where they're playing next. If you live in Chicago, you're in for a treat, because they play at lots of local events and venues. Go forth and enjoy.

What's the best genre-bending song on your playlist? Let us know in the comments!

Note: All photos and videos posted with permission of the artists.

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Featured Filkers #1: Cheshire Moon

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I can't remember the very first time I heard Cheshire Moon, but the memory that sticks with me is from the 2013 Ohio Valley Filk Festival (OVFF) songwriting contest. The theme was "Once Upon a Time." While the rest of us who entered raced to make the phrase central to our songs, Cheshire Moon decided to focus on the spirit of the prompt: traditional folklore. The result was a deliciously fractured fairy tale that took second place. The very next year, their entry "Snow White, Red Road" won the Pegasus Award for Best Filk Song. Much squeeing ensued, and I knew to keep tabs on their future shenanigans.

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Cheshire Moon is Lizzie Crowe and Eric Coleman, a husband and wife duo with a ton of tricks in their bag of holding. They are solid members of the filk community, though their music may also be classified as "mythpunk." Mythpunk is a genre comprised mainly of songs about mythology, folklore, and storytelling, usually with a twist. Some twists are more sizeable than others. Cheshire Moon's song topics range from Snow White as a bad-ass mage, to the spooky circus equivalent of Brigadoon, to what actually happens in the NYC Public Library when the lights go out. (Hint: it involves cats.) If something includes mischief, mystery, mysticism, or all three, you'll find it in their offerings.

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Cheshire Moon tends to compose in a style I can most closely describe as folk rock, with some notable exceptions. As you can see from the above photo, Eric and Lizzie are multi-talented regarding instruments. Lizzie is primarily a vocalist, but she plays a mean fiddle as well, and a mandolin . . .

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. . . and probably a few other things with strings. Speaking of, things with strings are Eric's specialty, and I mean almost any variety you can think of. He's playing a guitar immediately above, a cuatro in the photo at the beginning, and a bouzouki in the picture below.

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It's gotten to the point where he occasionally does panels on world varieties of plucked string instruments, complete with examples of his personal equipment. I've been to one, and it was both fascinating and entertaining.

To date, Cheshire Moon has produced three full-length albums and two EPs, all for sale on Bandcamp and their dedicated website. You can take a look here for info on where they are performing live.

I leave you with a quote from "Wanderers," one of my favorite Cheshire Moon songs:

Fairy tales are living things
That never have an ending,
An open door can be walked through both ways,
And every tale has something left to say.

What's your favorite fairy tale song? Let us know in the comments!

Note: All photos and videos posted with permission of the artists.

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A Personal History of Filk

As musical genres go, filk is incredibly diverse. It's one of those things that you immediately know when you hear it. But it didn't start out that way. I can't do as much justice to the evolution of filk as this academic paper by Sally Childs-Helton does, but I can throw my own experience into the mix. 

In contrast to many more venerable filkers, my first exposure to this music was on my computer. A middle school friend who was obsessed with Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar book series decided I needed to hear some tracks from CDs meant to accompany the books. She called the songs "filk."

A Mercedes Lackey CD cover. Vintage!

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I didn't question the name and instead fell in love with the music. I had already spent a few years prior fangirling over soundtracks from the console RPGs Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross, which had a very strong Celtic influence. This "filk" thing was often inspired by Celtic folk music as well, and had lyrics about fantasy and sci-fi stories.

This about sums up my reaction. 
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A little bit of context is helpful. Some ten or twenty years before I discovered her songs, Mercedes Lackey was an active member of the filk community. She wrote lyrics and collaborated with more musically-inclined filkers for the tunes and vocals. Two of her frequent collaborators were Leslie Fish and Heather Alexander, both of whom had forceful alto voices that lilted with the words. This sort of collaboration, I found out later, is extremely common among filkers. We tend to our own, so much so that if you need a violin or cello for your recording, sometimes all you need to do is ask. 

Anywho, the point is that I really dug this filk thing. I started writing my own songs in my freshman year of high school, and had a small collection by the time I attended my first two fan conventions in 2004. These were MarCon, a general sci-fi/fantasy con with a strong filk track, and the Ohio Valley Filk Festival (OVFF), a dedicated filk con with its very own Grammys, the Pegasus Awards. 

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I enjoyed them so much that I went back to both the next year, which marked the beginning of my ungodly obsession with entering the OVFF song contest. They have two contests every year, but I was never very good at one of them, the Iron Filker contest. Think Iron Chef, but songwriting. I stick to the one that actually gives you some notice regarding the topic you're supposed to write about. 

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I discovered filk at the very moment when it was transforming into something bigger than music played at conventions. Albums of filk really only started showing up in significant numbers in the 1990s, with a select few filkers doing this shindig for a living. Filk's online presence was also rapidly growing when I stuck my feet in the water. So it only makes sense that my introduction to filk was on the computer rather than in person. The face-to-face component of filking is still hugely important; think of it as the Guest of Honor among a host of other participants. 

Nowadays, filkers have branched out significantly from folky styles. As a prelude to some featured artist posts, I'll end this one with a recommendation for classic filk. The late Cynthia McQuillin, an avid filker who composed over 300 songs, wrote one song that I remember hearing early on and making "eep" noises about after it ended. Check out "Black Davie's Ride" if you like songs about highwaymen with fast, catchy guitar.

How were you introduced to filk? Let us know in the comments!

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Filk 101: A Different Sort of Music

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When it comes to music, my tastes are pretty eclectic. I have a slightly incongruous playlist, ranging from instrumental video game soundtracks to symphonic metal to prog-rock with lyrics about Greek mythology. But that last one is the one I want to talk to you about. Its nature is a little different from the others, like a rainbow unicorn of music.

It belongs to a genre called filk.

I am a producer and consumer of filk. What is filk, you might ask? Many longtime geeks are still not acquainted with this obscure category of music. Imagine being at a convention. Choose your flavor. Now imagine a track of programming that is music entirely dedicated to sci-fi, fantasy, fandom, parodies, and some unexpected things like death sheep from hell.

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It gets better.

While concerts are a big part of filk programming, they are arguably not my favorite part. My favorite part is ubiquity of the song circle. A song circle is what it sounds like: musicians and listeners gather in a room, form a circle, and take turns belting it out. The style is of little consequence, although many who have been in the community for years tend to lean more towards the folky side of things. You can find everything from classic rock to Celtic-inspired to pop music, as long as the lyrics are twisted a bit sideways. One duo even performs Renaissance-style counterpoint.

Everyone is encouraged to take a turn if they wish, or join in, or just sit back and enjoy. Beginners, expert musicians, and everyone in between has a place in the circle. It is a bit of an ethereal experience, to be honest. It is geeks coming together in the best of ways. My most recent song circles at MARCON, a general sci-fi/fantasy convention in central Ohio, included some unusual vocal jamming in addition to the regularly scheduled singers taking turns. That’s how organic filk can be.

If all of this sounds like something you might love, check out the filk programming at your next convention. I swear I’m not an official filk ambassador, but sometimes I feel like one. Despite the stereotypes, it is not just the over-tired dregs of the con howling badly at 3 AM (though this can occasionally be part of the fun). It is so much more. It is a connection with nerddom in its most creative space. It is the rainbow unicorn of music.

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Stay tuned for much more in-depth exploration of filk. I promise it’s worth it.

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