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INCONJUNCTION. 1985.
This was one of the better INCONJUNCTIONs for me. Marian Zimmer Bradley was the Pro Guest Of Honor, and spent some time playing with the toes of my son, Jeremy, in her face. (BTW, Jeremy still plays with his toes, by putting them in other people's faces...he has a black belt in Tae Kwon Do... but I digress.)
The filksing was cooking right well. There actually was a stage area, upon which were Michael "Moonwulf" Longcor, Bill Sutton, and me. With all due modesty, we were all, and are all, pretty damned good at filking; we were having a good time, and making better music.
In walked a new guy. A big new guy. A very big new guy. Six feet and ten inches of new guy! He was very deferential and polite. He asked us whether he might play a number - he certainly did not want to step on anyone's toes! Oh, no....
We leading luminaries of the filksinging movement magnanimously granted our permission....
The new guy was, of course, Dr. Barry Childs-Helton. What he played was an original composition:
"Lady Snowstar Supernova."
Oh-my-ever-merciful-good-Lord-of-hosts-and-little-fishes-by-the-edges-of-the-sea!!!
We were stunned. We were far-freakingly out, stone-cold blown away.
Barry finished. Wulf, Sutton, and I looked at him. Stunned.
We looked at each other. Still stunned.
We damned well knew we did not belong on the same stage with this musical genius. Without co-ordination, without a word, we all got up, shook our heads in awe, and left the stage to him....
With real magnanimity, Barry allowed us back, and has continued to let us back ever since.
Okay: what made Barry so different from the rest of us - beside the obvious fact that he towers over us literally, how does he also do so figuratively?
In 1985, virtually all filksingers came from a folk music tradition. Not Barry: he was, and is, an unrepentant and unreconstructed rock musician. Lady Snowstar Supernova is just overflowing with bar chords that most of us folkies had never seen, let alone played, viz. Dm/F6, Em/G6, et alia. He didn't stop there.
He next took us on a ride up the Stairway To Fandom; then on one (Goin' Down) The Cosmic Drain! And he didn't do it alone. He had, and has, a co-conspirator: Dr. Sally Childs-Helton, Mistress Of Percussion.
Barry Childs, a 1971 graduate of Wittenberg College (Springfield, Ohio), met Sally Helton at Indiana University. She received from there her doctorate in Ethnomusicology. (Upon her receipt of her doctorate, I gifted her with a button that reads: That's DOCTOR Bitch! Upon her award of black belt in hard-style (Oyama) Japanese Karate, she got one that reads: That's SENSEI Bitch. Yes, for those 'special occasions,' she also has one that reads: That's DOCTOR SENSEI Bitch! But I digress....) He received a doctorate (above and beyond his 'Eating Degree,' a master's in English) in Folklore. (His 'Eating Degree' has led him to editing and educating; his jobs have ranged from counselor for troubled adolescents to editor at MacMillan Computer.)
What was his doctoral dissertation topic?
Science Fiction And Space Imagery In Popular Culture.
Barry and Sally melded; unfortunately, because of a previous commitment she cannot grace us with her presence and percussion. Not only do they make excellent music with each other, they are the nucleus of the Black Book Band (other members: Michael Kube-McDowell, Mary Ellen Wessels, Gwen Zak) and the Con-Dells (other members: Alisa Cohen, Juanita Coulson, Murray Porath, Kathy Porath). They rock, and ever since then filk music has not just been derivative of folk; it also rocks.
Barry and Sally are incredibly generous with their efforts for the expansion of filking. They turned INCONJUNCTION into a far more music friendly convention. They started the 'after-con jams.' They encouraged new performers with the invention of the 'one shots,' a concert time for performers to debut just one new song apiece.
Despite what you may have read on the website or in the program book, I am not now, and never have been, Barry's side-kick.
But that's something I would be proud to be.
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