THERE HAVEN'T BEEN too many protest songs blowing in the wind this year. Despite the Gulf war being televised directly into our living rooms, folk music - the genre that stood up so famously for peace in the 1960s - seems to be under an attack of its own. Across Britain and the United States, folk clubs are vanishing. A generation that has been spoon-fed packaged, processed pop has emerged into audiences that no longer understand the appeal of raw, roots music. Audience numbers are on the decline, venues are vanishing and musicians are suffering.
'It's a money thing,' says Gilly Darbey, a prolific singer from Britain, who is facing her own shrinking line-up of gigs. 'They're closing the clubs down, and it's making the folk scene elitist and almost like the pop world.'
The 46-year-old singer should know. With a soulful voice drawing comparisons to the late Eva Cassidy, Darbey has been singing professionally since she was a 14-year-old in Coventry in the English Midlands. She was 'an angry young woman' who was into the protest songs of Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and Joni Mitchell.
'As a youngster I learnt my trade by being able to go around all the folk clubs, a nurturing environment where there was a mutual appreciation between the musicians and the audience,' she remembers. 'But now, because people are scrambling for money, the clubs are closing and it's getting more cut-throat. It's hard for youngsters. It's hard even for people like me who have a reputation.'
Darbey became a big name in the British scene when she teamed up in her 20s with songwriter Keith Donnelly for the folk act, Waterfall. Their acclaimed Nothing By Chance tour saw them opening for the likes of Van Morrison, Phil Cool, Tori Amos and Jasper Carrott. They also played such legendary slots as the opening act of the main stage of the Cambridge Festival - arguably Britain's best folk gathering. After a 20-year history, this partnership ended recently and Darbey set out to establish herself as a solo artist.
'I floundered for a while, trying to find my own direction,' she says. 'But I've come around and have really discovered the blues, as well as rediscovering the 60s' artists.'
