Deep Community: Adventures in the Modern Folk Underground

by Scott Alarik

Scott Alarik is the principal folk writer for the Boston Globe, and music critic for National Public Radio's "Here and Now". For 30+ years, Scott has been a nationally known singer-songwriter. The mainstream music industry is in historic decline, but the small sub-stream world of folk music is thriving as never before. Why? This book creates an intimate portrait of the modern folk world in interviews with over 120 of its biggest stars, and revealing backstage stories about this vibrant grassroots world.

Genres: Music

416 pages, Paperback

First published May 15, 2003

Reviews

[Miriam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good for anyone who listens to folk music and knows something about it already. I would not recommend it as an introduction to the folk world. The book is a compilation of newspaper articles written from 1991-2003 by Scott Alarkin for Boston Globe. Because of that, the articles are somewhat dated and are focused on the folk world of New England. But for the folk lover the drawbacks do not outweigh the benefits. It's hard to find someone who writes about folk and even harder to find someone who writes about folk well. Alarkin writes well and introduced me to some artists that I need to listen to. What more could I ask for?

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned so much about folk music from this book, which means that I also learned so much about Boston and its people. I knew that folk was popular here, but had no idea to what degree. Though the articles in this collection are somewhat dated now, there is such freshness to the writing and content. What could be better than a bunch of musicians and artists who want nothing more to connect with others as honestly as possible?

[Jeanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written in 2003, this compilation of Boston Globe columns and Sing Out articles is sadly out of date. It was nice to remember when they were current reviews and tributes. Many of the performers have since died and the clubs closed since this was written. Scott Alarik died a few weeks ago and it was also nice to read his book as a tribute to him.

[Ann]

need more time to focus