Folk Music Gone Big, Wide, and Artfully Pop

With concerts by the unique Folk Orchestra of Santa Barbara (FOSB), disarming moments happen when listeners realize we’re no longer in the Kansas of normal music behavior. That principle is especially evident when the FOSB, which often explores Celtic and other worldly genres, takes a plunge into the ’60s.

Take, for instance, the concert opener on Sunday at Trinity Episcopal Church, a folk-fueled take on Booker T’s “Green Onions,” or the moment midway through “The Letter,” when founder-arranger Adam Phillips cranked up his (and our) beloved bagpipes and shook up all our assumptions about that ‘60s pop hit. Or take a listen to his premiering arrangement of “Moon River,” on bagpipes and Laurie Rasmussen’s harp, plus Phillips’s own sweet and strong vocal treatment. 

In the concert’s second half, we were treated to and surprised by a rendition of the Rolling Stones’ “Paint It Black,” painted a blackish tint with Phillips on hurdy-gurdy and Josh Jenkins playing the Indian Hindustani slide guitar instrument known as the Mohan veena. 

It somehow all made sense and invited listener curiosity, because with FOSB, what’s wrong with this picture is also what’s right with it. Through the efforts and handiwork of Phillips, as arranger, performer and project-architect, FOSB has taken what is essentially an outlier concept — the folk orchestra, with large ensemble arrangements of typically small ensemble sources — and applied an internal logic to the enterprise. A large and growing fan base is on board with Phillips’s by-now comfortable and affirming premise.

For this occasion, it made sense to cross over from the ‘60s playlist to classical music, in the form of JS Bach’s “Bourrée,” folded into the counterculture listener base through Jethro Tull’s rough-and-ready version, and duly delivered at Trinity by resident flutist Sherylle Englander. James Taylor’s moving “Carolina on My Mind,” pared down to Jenkins on guitar and vocals and Liam Burroughs on viola, and Joni Mitchell’s iconic “Both Sides Now” also contributed to this group’s devotion to folk loam in the broadest definition.

In the second set, Phillips posed the musical question, “How can you have a ’60s program without the Zombies?” before launching into “Time of the Season,” which was followed by the folk orchestral and “small ensembles” versions of “I Wanna Hold Your Hand,” “Riders on the Storm” and “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” One could add, “How can you have a ’60s program without George Harrison’s eloquent weep of a song?”

To close, Phillips let us out of the U.S./U.K.-dominated ’60s repertoire and into the traditional FOSB sing-along finale of the Irish traditional ode “The Parting Glass” — perhaps circa the 1660s. As usual with these concerts, a collective warmth rose up in the room, and the tune helps to segue into the more Celtic manners to come this season for the orchestra.

As the FOSB season proceeds, the musical going indeed gets Celtic and other cultural influences, as is its welcome wont: Scottish/Celtic on November 6-8, Nordic, January 29-31, and Irish/Celtic, March 12-14. 

For more information, see folkorchestrasb.com.