Folk Punk To Me by Clunes

One of the first memes about folk punk that comes to mind for me is the one of King Arthur and his knights at the round table. Each knight was labeled as a drug addict, depressed teenager, frustrated college student, former drug addict, punk, and anarchist. All of their swords are drawn and raised about the table signifying unity over the text written above: “Have you ever heard of Pat the Bunny?”

People find their way to folk punk in a variety of ways. And while we might often joke about the quality of the music we listen to, we hold it very near and dear to our hearts. I believe in fact that points to one of the binding factors of the genre, the content of the lyrics and the magnitude of what they mean to the people who listen to it. Path the Bunny often wrote that he did not want to be anybody’s hero (as many punks have often said). But his and others’ ability to articulate the struggles of a leftist in today’s society leaves it difficult not to strongly empathize with the artist.

Our community tends to promote people who write raw, unfiltered and unadulterated rather than those who are able to play the most proficient or the fastest. Our little corner of the musical sphere is unique in that the spirit of the genre itself is often just as important as the music. Our community might be a small one, but we take strength in the tremendous solidarity we have with one another. So to ask what folk punk means to people, you’d have to ask individual people themselves. Because that’s the nature of the genre, the reason why it’s such an important aspect to our lives. It means so much to each of us personally.

~Clunes