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For the last five decades, Faith Petric has taken center stage as the heart and soul of the San Francisco Bay Area's folk music community
JoAnn Mar1 | San Francisco, California 12 April 2010
At 95, folk singer Faith Petric still holds regular jam sessions at her San Francisco home.
Related Links
San Francisco Folk Music Club
Folk Alliance Region West
It's Friday night in San Francisco and several dozen musicians are arriving at Faith Petric's home with their guitars, banjos and mandolins. They enter a large living room, where the woman they call 'the queen of folk music' is holding court.
Petric has been a mainstay of the San Francisco Folk Club since the 1970's. As a long-time labor2 and political activist3, Petric says she was drawn4 to folk music because it was radical5, out of the mainstream6 and spoke7 to the human condition.
"People sing to their babies before they're born and we keen for the dead," Petric says. "It goes through all of life. There's no aspect of human life, I believe, that is not recorded in folk music."
Faith Petric (left) is joined by long-time club member Estelle Freedman on the mandolin at a recent jam session.
Regular jam sessions
Twice a month, Petric hosts the folk club's jam sessions at her house, where everyone who shows up is welcome.
"Probably everyone who's picked up a guitar or sung songs has at some point been introduced to Faith and to the folk music club and the music community," says Don, a member of the club since the mid8 60's.
He says Petric's living room has been the heart of that community. "Faith's been around a long time and been a real leader. She's created a whole family. People like myself, many hundreds and hundreds of people like myself. I started playing music in this living room many years ago."
He credits Petric's spirit and energy with keeping the music club vital.
When Petric was hospitalized after a fall, club members moved the regular jam session to her hospital room.
A musical focus after retirement9
After retiring from her government job at age 55, Petric became a full-time10 folk performer and the task of keeping the San Francisco Folk Music Club together fell to her.
"I was doing pretty much everything that had to be done," she recalls, adding that one of her most important contributions was the monthly Folk-Nik newsletter, which went out to all club members.
"I would write it and put it on a stencil11 and run it on a mimeograph machine and address it and mail it. All the little odds12 and ends that needed to be done. But there was a time when I probably was - I called it the glue that held it together - I think that's a fairly accurate description."
San Francisco musician Adam Miller13 admits that the Folk-Nik was the reason he joined the club. "It's got all the listings for all the performances of any kind of folk music or dance." He was a member for 10 years before starting to attend the jam sessions at Petric's house.
Miller says he's amazed at her encyclopedic knowledge of folk music.
"They call her the Fort Knox of folk music. She knows more songs than anyone I've ever encountered." He says that if you sing a song and don't get the words right, "she'll correct you. 'You got the words a little bit out of kilter.' She'll nail you on that."
Still, he says Petric is a pleasure to sing and play with. "It's quite a treat to make music with someone who's been making music so long, who knows so many songs. It's a pleasure to sit up till 3 in the morning on a Friday night with her, doing old Carter family songs and harmonizing."
Nurturing14 and preserving folk music traditions
The great jazz trumpeter Louis Armstrong is quoted as saying "all music is folk music." And, indeed, folk encompasses15 elements of almost every musical genre--blues, country, old time, Cajun, even classical and jazz.
Over the years, Faith Petric has done much to nurture16 these folk traditions and encourage everyone to sing along and participate.
Newcomers like Eileen and Mitchell are always welcome to join in the music-making in Petric's living room
She's proud that hundreds of amateurs have attended the club's annual free folk festival, or come to make music in her living room.
"The people who come here are not professional singers. This is not a performance arena17 at all," she says. "You'll hear some of the worst music you've ever heard in your life and you'll hear some very good, also because it's accepted. You can just be horrible and you don't know a chord and your guitar is out of tune18 and you couldn't carry a tune if you had a bucket. But it's accepted, it's all right."
In recognition of her contributions to folk music, Petric received a lifetime achievement award last year from the Folk Alliance Region West, a nonprofit dedicated19 to supporting and promoting folk music.
Faith Petric is turning 95 this year. Although age and disability have slowed her down, she insists she will continue to make music as long as she can.
1 mar | |
vt.破坏,毁坏,弄糟 | |
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2 labor | |
n.劳动,努力,工作,劳工;分娩;vi.劳动,努力,苦干;vt.详细分析;麻烦 | |
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3 activist | |
n.活动分子,积极分子 | |
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4 drawn | |
v.拖,拉,拔出;adj.憔悴的,紧张的 | |
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5 radical | |
n.激进份子,原子团,根号;adj.根本的,激进的,彻底的 | |
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6 mainstream | |
n.(思想或行为的)主流;adj.主流的 | |
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7 spoke | |
n.(车轮的)辐条;轮辐;破坏某人的计划;阻挠某人的行动 v.讲,谈(speak的过去式);说;演说;从某种观点来说 | |
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8 mid | |
adj.中央的,中间的 | |
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9 retirement | |
n.退休,退职 | |
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10 full-time | |
adj.满工作日的或工作周的,全时间的 | |
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11 stencil | |
v.用模版印刷;n.模版;复写纸,蜡纸 | |
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12 odds | |
n.让步,机率,可能性,比率;胜败优劣之别 | |
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13 miller | |
n.磨坊主 | |
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14 nurturing | |
养育( nurture的现在分词 ); 培育; 滋长; 助长 | |
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15 encompasses | |
v.围绕( encompass的第三人称单数 );包围;包含;包括 | |
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16 nurture | |
n.养育,照顾,教育;滋养,营养品;vt.养育,给与营养物,教养,扶持 | |
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17 arena | |
n.竞技场,运动场所;竞争场所,舞台 | |
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18 tune | |
n.调子;和谐,协调;v.调音,调节,调整 | |
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19 dedicated | |
adj.一心一意的;献身的;热诚的 | |
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