[moustress]

My husband and I are long time science fiction fans and we also happen to be long time musicians with serious history of sharing music in circles at science fiction conventions. The genre of music played at SF conventions is called 'filk', honoring a typographical error made somewhere in the misty past, and enshrined on the principle of 'Oh, I did that on purpose'.

So we are Filk Fund Musician Guests of Honor at DucKon, a regional SF convention being held this weekend in the Chicago area. The Filk Fund is set up to raise money to bring in filk musicians to conventions they would otherwise not have attended. As guests our expenses are paid, and we are honored with a concert slot and a CD to be recorded of that concert will fund future Filk Fund Guests at others venues in the future. It's an odd little corner of an odd community of SF fans that we occupy, sort of big fish in a small pond, if you will. We play a lot of Nate's originals, a few folk songs, some assorted rock, and other oddities, Nate on classical guitar, me on electric bass, both of us singing...we also stay up way too late in the music circles swapping songs with the other musicians in attendance. The circles are the main draw for some of us. Being funded and honored as guests makes it affordable.

The weekend also gives us a opportunity to make a little extra cash selling our CD's of Nate's songs, including the second CD, which I produced, ' Water Over the Bridge' by Nate Bucklin.

This post was in response to a question in one of my other threads that didn't pertain to the subject of that thread.

 

[Piccolopony]

Very cool! I am also a musician and a huge Sifi nerd but I never thought of combining them. Now I'm going to do some searching

 

[Kallan]

Is filk Sci-Fi soundtracks and film scores or is it futuristic music (e.g. Jean Michel Jarre and Equinox)?

 

[moustress]

Filk is anything played live at an SF convention. Sometimes the songs are about SF or Fantasy books, characters, or movies, or TV, or whatever. Sometimes the songs are about the the people and clubs and conventions and publications both professional and amateur. there's a strong contingent of pagans in our community, so some is in that vein.

Nate and I do a little of everything, plus any folk, rock, jazz, standard, blues or whatever we really like. Nate has written a lot of original songs, some of which are about SF, or which are ballads that tell an SF or fantasy story, others which are commentary on the scene in general, and some that defy description other than being stuff Nate wrote.

Movie themes have been used in various ways...last night a guy played a theme from some recent movie (missed the title) on mandolin and kazoo (a one man band). Another guy had prerecorded a house style backup to a rap he performed about Snoopy, Charlie Brown, etc....we also allow recitations of poems, and a capella singing in a wide variety of styles.

 

[Piccolopony]

Let me know if you ever need a cellist

 

[moustress]

:!:

OK, I will. We've only ever seen one cellist at an SF con.

ps i'm very intrigued

 

[Piccolopony]

my bachelors degree is in music performance on the cello and I did some recording while I was in college. Mainly pop stuff but it was really fun and I never charged anything because I just enjoyed helping out. I am a huge SiFi geek but I've never been to a convention :0 I'm intrigued by your stuff