..Each time an icon of roots Americana passes, we hear that an era is over. But is that true? We may miss the presence and humor and shared life experiences of an Earl Scruggs, but plenty of survivors -- including some very youthful ones...
..Each time an icon of roots Americana passes, we hear that an era is over. But is that true? We may miss the presence and humor and shared life experiences of an Earl Scruggs, but plenty of survivors -- including some very youthful ones -- remain with us, devoted to the esoteric licks and styles and catalog of tunes and songs of every famous lost icon..There's far more reason to worry about something else more subtle than an individual death, but more threatening in terms of our musical culture and legacy and whether it really might be vanishing. .We should note that roots music has never been a big commercial force, so the hundreds of kids picking banjo at the Topanga Banjo Fiddle Contest & Folk Festival really don't care that some insipid TV show like "American Idol" won't come calling. We don't concede that it couldn't be economically important, if Big Music hadn't become the exclusive domain of a very narrow genre..The real worry is the loss of artistry and diversity within what once was -- for one brief, shining moment -- a broad spectrum of all that was considered the purview of popular music, and the accessibility of that lost world of popular music to creative inclusion..We take up this topic because THE DOORS' keyboardist RAY MANZAREK died Monday of cancer. And that got us thinking that his passing is yet another loss that includes both the musician and the fact that what he achieved in a previous time is not open to anyone today..Manzarek's signature riffs characterized the music of the Doors in such songs as "Light My Fire," "Break on Through to the Other Side," L.A. Woman," and many more that shared late '60s and early '70s airwaves with Bob Dylan, the Beatles, The Mamas & the Papas, the Byrds, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez, Simon & Garfunkle, Crosby Stills & Nash, Ravi Shankar, and more. .No time had been like that era of music radio, and none has, since. Music was open, there were no genre police, and no one set himself up to play stifling gate-keeper. .Now, even "classic rock" radio stations do not use playlists of that era. You're lucky to hear 20% of what enriched the airwaves of the time they claim to celebrate..It's significant that much of the music of that era has been belatedly embraced as Folk-Rock and even Folk-Americana, though that was unthinkable at the time: Billy Joel's "Piano Man;" Jim Croce's "I've Got a Name;" Gram Parsons' entire catalog; Eric Clapton's reintroduction of American blues to America (and to some extent, the same thing by the Rolling Stones)..All the artists we have named so far could routinely share a single afternoon of broadcast time, circa 1972 or '73 -- on the same mainstream radio station -- with Stevie Wonder's "Superstition," Elton John's "Rocket Man," Don McLean's "American Pie," John Denver's "Rocky Mountain High," James Taylor's "Fire and Rain," Arlo Guthrie singing Steve Goodman's "City of New Orleans," and bands like Bread, Jefferson Airplane, and Kenny Rogers & the First Edition -- and the Eagles, and Chicago, and Blood Sweat & Tears, and the Allman Brothers Band, and America -- and with a rich offering from wonderful women artists, including Linda Ronstadt, Olivia Newton-John, Minnie Ripperton, Maria Muldaur, Nicollete Larson, Emmylou Harris, Ann & Nancy Wilson of Heart, and oh so very many more, including those we already mentioned in this piece..And yes, we will belabor the point that ALL these bands and artists could be heard on the same mainstream radio stations on the same deejays' air shifts, and that was just a typical take-it-for-granted broadcast day..Where is the like of it today -- male or female artists, or bands, or collaborative ensembles? There's no shortage of Berklee or Julliard or Musicians Institute grads, and we just saw the dedication and devotion of some very young players competing on traditonal instruments at the annual contest on Sunday. Are we considering all the factors? Creativity is hopefully not a diminishing co
