Filk Music: Grass Roots Music for the Space/Computer Age

My favorite (and possibly the most famous) filk writer/singer is Leslie Fish. Leslie writes on a broad spectrum of topics ranging from silly songs about Star Trek to protest songs to pagan spirituals. Her best known work is “Hope Eyrie”, a paean to the landing of the Eagle on the moon. She has produced 14 “albums” (for want of a better word), and numerous odd ditties which cannot be found on any formal recording. (If anyone can come up with a copy of “The Last Vampire” I’d love to have it.) Leslie has a voice that might best be described as a whiskey alto, but can range up toward the top of second soprano. She plays “Monster”, her 12-string guitar. For more information, check out her web page at http://lesliefish.com .

My next favorite is Suzette Haden Elgin. Elgin no longer filks, I’m sorry to say. She still writes, however; turning out wonderful non-fiction dealing with linguistics and communication. By asking very nicely and sending cash, I was able to get all of her filk tapes. Two my favorite titles are “Dragons, Cows and Kudzu” and “Industrial Strength Songs and Stories”. Her filks were wonderful for singing with my children because they couldn’t be beat for story telling and lessons taught, as well as being clean enough my kids wouldn’t get in trouble for singing them at school. Her singing voice is a sweet alto, and she plays a standard guitar. Her webpage may be found at http://www.sfwa.org/members/elgin .

No list of filkers would be complete without mentioning Julia Ecklar. Julia writes science fiction, and has a nearly professional musical background. She covers a lot of Leslie Fish’s filk classics, but also has some excellent compositions of her own. My favorites of her work are “Ladyhawk” (inspired by the movie) and “One-man magical show”. She has a blog at http://jecklar.livejournal.com You can find samples (and the opportunity to purchase) of her music at http://www.prometheus-music.com/divine.html . “Lullaby for a Weary World” is so apropos for our current times.

A lesser known artist, but one of my personal favorites, is Diana Gallagher. No filk collection is complete without “Wolf”, the musical chronicle of a dragon who follows a little girl home (sung with her daughter) or that all time classic “Anatomical Docking Maneuvers”, otherwise known as “Zero-G Sex”. She also turns out some incredible fine arts featuring little dragons and beautiful likenesses of her daughter. She plays guitar, has a lovely singing voice and great stage presence in person. You can find out more about her at http://www.dianaggallagher.com/biography.htm .

For an all-round sampling of filk music, visit the Virtual Filk-sing at http://www.prometheus-music.com/eli/virtual.html . It’s not for everyone…this grass-roots, off-key and sometimes off-color genre of folk music. It’s a little bit of a lot of different things-science fiction, musical parodies, spoofery, political commentary, reverence, irreverence, a love of earth and a yearning for that final frontier, space…but always it will boldly go…sometimes where it shouldn’t have gone at all; but with such a cheery insouciance ya gotta love it.