Truth be told, Hill[the guy who put the Velvet Underground Acetate, which MW posted here, up on eBay]'s not the most passionate of Velvet Underground fans. A recent graduate, in history, from Concordia University, he's president of the self-founded Irma Thomas and Minit Records Fan Club (Thomas is a New Orleans soul singer, Minit a now-defunct indie record label) and the publisher of a music fanzine called $2 (Comes with Mixtape).

"Right now I'm getting caught up in Christmas," he said. He'll be shutting up Backdoor Records and Pastries shortly to head out to Vancouver to visit his parents. Then early in the new year, he's off to Taiwan for a visit he describes as "part holiday, part scholarly."

One label that's made inroads into the twenty-something market is John Fahey's Revenant, a two-man startup dedicated to "raw music with a strong spiritual core." Thanks to sleek packaging and articles in major rock periodicals, Revenant is spreading the old time gospel sound far beyond the borders of the Yazoo/Folkways audience. Though not limited to roots releases - their most ambitious project to date is a five-CD set of Captain Beefheart rarities - Revenant has managed to sell 10,000 copies of Dock Boggs' 20's recordings. Though hardly impressive by major label standards, the figure is more than many indie cult bands have mustered, and indicates a burgeoning market for the music. "I think people are interested in not being fooled," Dean Blackwood, Fahey's partner, e-mailed me recently: "Irony is a very important tool in the 'post-modern' age - people my age tend to use it as a primary mode of expression... I think a lot of people are just sick of it and want something direct and raw, much like they wanted when they found Elvis in '54-'55 or punk in '75 or garage rock in the '60s."

More than anything, it's Revenant's refusal to segregate its old time releases in a folk music ghetto that gives me hope for the next wave of roots music releases. Surely, seeing Charlie Patton, Charlie Feathers, and Cecil Taylor side by side in their catalog is a sign that the next generation of folk fans will judge the music I love on aesthetic, rather than ideological terms. "We are not in the business of writing theses and finding music to support them," Blackwood said. "If we don't think the music makes for compelling listening independent of some sort of analytical framework, we do our best to leave it alone."

Labels: 5% rap, alex, gospel music, new year's mix, spanish grease