good folk
We like to call folk wisdom corny but that doesn’t make it less true.
What happens when you squeeze people together, for centuries, what pours out, what gets left behind. The essence of our humanity. That’s folk.
It’s words that are so simple and true they cannot be countered or qualified, only contemplated.
The word mensch. The word woke.
What does it mean to awaken? To be unable to go back to sleep?
I finally started writing this letter at 3AM [edit: a week ago] by joking to myself: “sleep is overrated.”
Of course, we need to sleep. We love to sleep. Perhaps it’s the main reason we in wealthy societies keep pets. To show us how it’s done. To sleep, to dream.
But we can’t always. Because some days, some weeks, some years are too full of actions and reactions, of storms long brewing, to be understood before night falls. And understanding is our lot. Our blessing and our curse.
Biting the fruit of knowledge is what cast us from paradise.
Again, that’s folk wisdom. The good book.
For days now, I’ve wanted this letter to share some source of joy. To “lighten things up already.” It can be so taxing to always write, albeit in a whisper, “baby… wake up”.
Because sleep is both wonderful and inevitable. It’s the child to be in the womb and the child that was in the tomb.
Sleep is the container of all that we know and love.
More simply, sleep is rest and reassurance. You can’t very well sleep when you’re in danger.
To be asleep, is to be safe. (Exposed, vulnerable.)
When we are asleep we are also elsewhere.
When something is very good, we may say: “I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn’t dreaming.”
These are moments of ecstasy: when we are literally outside of ourselves.
As when we are “transported” by music.
We say music soothes the soul. It simultaneously lulls and awakens.
We are moved to dance: to make movements that are not “productive” and thus spiritual.
Perhaps, more than visual art or drama, it’s music that conveys the essence of folk.
Diego Lorenzini
Some years ago, by chance, or more accurately, by the probability of chance in the then not yet enshitified Spotify algorithm, we found the artist Diego Lorenzini.
Being older, having heard many versions of more than a few musics, we did not pause at first to understand what we were hearing. We knew only that we liked it very much.
But Diego Lorenzini, who, by chance, is in Chile, is worth a pause and considering. Even if you don’t speak Spanish as your native tongue. (There are apps for that.)
Consider his song “Nothing against K-Pop”, which begins as a languid acoustic instrumental and then transforms into an anthem big enough to connect K-Pop with police at protests.
I know that reads absurd but, like folk wisdom, it’s true because it works. Such is the level of craft in his songs.
There are many of them and they have been getting better with each album. His latest, and his greatest to date, would be considered a double album by American standards. I would start there.
With Photoshop Moral, Fake News and Chiquero.
They are friendly, unassuming but also powerful earworms, in no small part because of their lyrics.1
Lorenzini’s songs are, unavoidably, in Spanish. Not just the easy rhymes of reggaeton, but also some long, wry turns of phrase that release slowly over time. Like fine wine.
Whether or not you are a native speaker, you, too, can enjoy them. There are apps for that.
In my estimation, he’s one of the best songwriters and musicians I’ve ever heard and, for what it’s worth, I’ve dedicated more time than many in pursuit of music that both wakes you up and helps you fall asleep.
I hope that you will also enjoy.
postscript
Nada en Contra del K-pop, lyrics, excerpted and translated.
Se iba a reventar y se reventó Se iba a despertar y se despertó ¿Y ahora qué? Que los anarquistas internacionales ¿En serio? La gente no es tonta Nada en contra de esas canciones k-pop Esto no viene de afuera La rabia y el amor Yo me pregunto Si este mal es para bien en el futuro | It was going to blow and it blew And now what? It’s international anarchists Really? People aren’t stupid Nothing against those K-pop songs This didn’t come from outside Anger and love I ask myself If this evil is for a future good |
In preparing to write this I had thought: wasn’t there a time when people of good taste listened to opera, and lyrics that are in a foreign language?
Of course, much of the world listens to some music in English. Such has been the power of American folk music, from jazz and rock to now rap and “pop”. ↩