How to Write a Folk Song

Original Article written by Christopher Miller

Since you probably haven't jumped any boxcars or participated in union rallies recently, pick a hot contemporary issue that you feel deeply about. This can range from a war abroad or your best friend's haircut. If you don't represent your generation now, you will soon. Even if the times aren't changing, you can convince people they are.

Step 1

Because folk songs are written for the people at large, ask yourself why this issue would matter to a large demographic. For example, your best friend's haircut might remind you of the fall of the Ottoman Empire. Write this down in the simplest terms possible.

Step 2

Find a pair of jeans, T-shirt and sweater that you can live in for the next couple of months. Locate a mirror and look deeply into your soul for at least two or three minutes. Use that. Put back on your sunglasses and don't take them off, even if you are inside

Step 3

If you don't know how to play guitar by now, get your hands on one and start strumming. Don't worry if you are musically disinclined. What matters is the message of the song and the two or three chords you might choose. If you can't play guitar, don't worry either. Just find a friend who does and is willing to let you have the spotlight

Step 4

Find the nearest public square or fountain and belt it out, stopping occasionally for cigarettes or to talk with the pigeons. Try to incorporate your observations into your song. Remember, folk songs are amorphous adaptable things that shift according to your needs.

Step 5

Respond coyly to requests for interviews. When asked questions about your past, tell them to listen for it in the wind.

Step 6

By now you are probably playing shows and asking yourself why you even started this in the first place. Now it is time to go into hiding, only to emerge twenty years later for various benefit concerts and film cameos. Your kids are old enough now to exploit your name. Try to remain happy for their success.

Tips & Warnings

• Don't choose song titles that have already been taken. Traditional folk songs are fine, as long as they point back to some mysterious and unrecoverable sadness.
  
  
• Try to keep the language as simple as possible. For example, love rhymes very well with dove or glove.
  
  
• If you are going to write a break song, cloud your object of endearment in metaphors. A lot of people have written great songs about "lovers," but how about washing machines as lovers?

• --
  "That's another way of writing a song, of course. Just talking to somebody that ain't there. That's the best way. That's the truest way. Then it just becomes a question of how heroic your speech is. To me, it's something to strive after."
  -Bob Dylan
  
  
  
  
  
  I wanted an Anarchy Heart on my wall in my room where I record, so I put it there. Right between the Woodstock and Grateful Deal posters.