Music Transmission Quotes

Musicians are like a preacher, a teacher, an actor. You are the mediator who can transfer the energy of beautiful music to the others.

My father urged Alan [Lomax] not to repeat the mistakes of the European folklorists who, a century ago, had collected these peasant songs and then arranged them for part choir and accompanied them on piano, and then told the young people of their country, "Don't change a note, this is our sacred heritage." Father said, whether it's a fiddle tune or a gospel song, learn it right off the record from the people who grew up with it. Don't just learn it from a piece of paper.

I think of a piece of music as something that comes alive when it is being performed, and I feel that my role in the transmission of music is to be its best advocate at that moment.

We'll be presenting a broad spectrum of the music and looking at how the younger guys can carry it on.

Music was transmitted over the airwaves in the '60s - for free, even - astonishingly enough without Bit Torrent.

I think there is always going to be inspired music and there are always going to be inspired listeners and there is always going to be an inspired method of getting it from A to B.

There was this mountain village in Russia where my music was getting in on some German radio station. I remember this because music used to get up to Saskatchewan from Texas. Late at night after the local station closed down.

I view music mostly as communication, so when I record, I'm communicating to the listener in the future.

As the mother teaches her children how to express themselves in their language, so one Gypsy musician teaches the other. They have never shown any need for notation.

In Europe, I do see a lot of women who were fans years ago bring their daughters and sons to shows and that's how my music gets passed down, and I love that.