Filipino Folk Songs and Dances

[countrykidanthony]

---

i always wonder why this particular type of music is being overlooked by young bands here.

A boardmate friend of mine caught me yesterday listening to Nitoy Gonzales and His Rondalla CD, a collection of Philippine Folk Songs and Dances (Tinikling, Lawiswis Kawayan, Pandanggo sa Ilaw,etc) and he totally don't get it. He probably don't understand the beauty of these songs.

I've been listening to different form of folk music around the world from celtic to bluegrass to carribean to the music of middle asia ( i dunno what to call it) and its such a pleasure exposing my ears to these wonderful facet of folk music.

Then i heard Abigail Washburn talking about doing an album of Eastern Folk Music. Music from China to Taiwan to The Philippines to Japan. Abigail Washburn is the leader of The Sparrow Quartet with Bela Fleck on banjo, Ben Sollee on cello, and Casey Driessen on fiddle.

On their last album, they did some traditional songs from China(Washburn is fluent in Chinese) and Bela Fleck did a cover of Lawiswis Kawayan back in 1996 on his album Live Art with his band Bela Fleck and The Flecktones (everybody knows Victor Wooten i supposed) .

And i was wondering, when will we start appreciating our folk songs and start updating them and arranging them to modernity? Will we wait for foreign artists to cover our own folk songs?

In Bohol there are rondalla bands but i'm not talking about rondalla bands. I'm talking about normal bands doing rondalla music or folk music. I wanna see the Nickel Creek or Grada of this country...