Billy Bragg & Pokey LaFarge Did Not Get Along At WOMADelaide

Legendary British singer-songwriter Billy Bragg and fast-rising American relative newcomer Pokey LaFarge have a pretty strong difference of opinion about the role that British musicians and music consumers had on the resurgence of the Americana genre of music.

Bragg wrote an opinion piece for The Guardian in September last year which basically stated that the British invented Americana. Bragg says that if it was thanks to British skiffle star Lonnie Dongan that the people of the United Kingdom became somewhat familiar with classic American music. While skiffle died a quick death, it left in its wake a whole heap of Brits keen to hear more where it came from; these fans turning to American blues and folk styles.

“The skiffle craze soon fizzled out, but it left behind it a cohort of teenagers hungry to hear blues and folk records made by American artists before the war. Such albums were hard to find and, if you had one, word would get out and every hip kid in the area would be knocking on your door for a listen. It was his impressive collection of records by Chicago bluesmen that first attracted Keith Richards to Mick Jagger in 1962.”

“It took the British invasion of the mid-60s to bring Muddy Waters and the other giants of the blues to the attention of American youth. In 1964, the Rolling Stones even scored a hit with Howlin' Wolf's Little Red Rooster. The roots of American music, carried across the ocean by Ken Colyer, were being brought back home.

“In that same year, a British band took an old American folk song and fused it with the energy of the Blues Boom. The Animals had heard Bob Dylan sing House of the Rising Sun on his debut album. They gathered up all the hallmarks of the black American music they loved – menacing electric guitar, pulsing Vox organ, growling vocals – and made a record that is credited with convincing Dylan to pick up the electric guitar.”

LaFarge took issue with these comments and hit back in a TEDx Talk he conducted in January of this year.

“When you have people like Billy Bragg who are saying that England, through Skiffle music invented what we know as modern day Americana, giving false claim to his people, his country and blatantly disregarding the early country, blues, rockabilly, rock'n'roll and soul performers of the United States. It's important to know your history, because there are people out there literally re-creating it to use it against you.”

Bragg took to Facebook to hit back at the comments made on the video, saying that LaFarge was missing his point.

“Nowhere in this article am I suggesting that Brits invented country, blues, rockabilly, rock'n'roll, soul or any other American roots music,” he writes. “Like Pokey, I revere the originators of those styles. However, if we accept the Americana Music Association's definition of their genre as music inspired by the roots music of America, then we Brits do have a claim to be early adopters.

“I'm sharing the bill with Pokey La Farge at Womadelaide in South Australia on Monday. Hopefully, I'll get a chance to discuss this with him over a friendly beer.”

It sounds as if that beer wasn't all that friendly in the end, with LaFarge apparently unwilling to take Bragg's points on board and not even interested in agreeing to disagree

“The only blot on the evening was my conversation with Pokey La Farge,” Bragg recalls in his latest post. “I spotted him backstage about an hour before I went on, walked over, shook him by the hand and suggested we took a moment to sit down and iron out our differences.

“We did speak for about ten minutes, but I was unable to convince him that I was not questioning the originality of American roots music: jazz, blues, ragtime, country, western, rockabilly, soul, r&b and more all come from the USA. My argument is that if Americana as we know it today is music inspired by those roots, then skiffle fits the bill and the British have some claim to be first adopters.

“He continued to rail at this idea, constantly returning to long lists of American roots musicians for whom I have the greatest respect. He seemed unwilling to accept that foreigners might have taken inspiration from those roots and created something new. In Pokey's eyes, it seems, only Americans can create new music.

“I rejected this nativist argument and suggested we conduct this argument in print, either in the press or online, citing our sources and honing our points. He rejected this and walked away, still accusing me of disrespecting roots artists.

“All I want to do is to get some respect for skiffle in the UK and in the USA. It's a real shame that Pokey can't be big enough to accept that we have differing views on this and to agree to disagree without getting personal.”

We are yet to see further response from Pokey LaFarge, though we will let you know if we do.