This is my first post to the Music Community, please be gentle to me (or not... constructive criticism is helpful...).
Anyone who has followed my posts knows that I'm an avid storyteller and Dungeons & Dragons player. When I'm writing D&D adventures for my players, many of my inspirations come from music, and particularly things from the Filk genre.
Image by Jake Parkinson from Pixabay
For anyone who doesn't know Filk, it's a kind of folk spin-off or sub-genre. It focuses on fantasy, sci-fi and mythological subjects. There's a strong element of storytelling in the songs. It's a very welcoming genre, with artists at all levels; the artists can often be found performing at cosplay and gaming conventions, LARP events, events dedicated to sci-fi and fantasy books etc. Audience participation is often a thing, but there are some stunningly talented artists in the genre.
Here are three of my current favourites......
Julia Ecklar - The Troll King's Dream
This one is worth playing loud ! Julia Ecklar has the most incredibly powerful voice, and she tells a story with fire and passion. The story is based around an episode from Elfquest, a comic book series, but is a wonderful tale of power and the desperation of bad people to keep power once they've taken it. A natural for a D&D plot line !
Leslie Fish/Mercedes Lackey - Eumenides
A nice simple story of vengeance 😁 But full of drama, of course. The title refers to the Eumenides of Ancient Greek myth; they're a concept you get to once you start scratching a bit deeper below the surface. Most people have heard of the Erinyes (Furies), demi-goddesses of vengeance. But they were also known as the Eumenides, which translates as Gracious, or Kindly Ones. They still did the whole revenge thing, but more as a way to bring justice for the defenceless, especially women and children.
This is just an awesome song, and it gets me in the mood for writing really dark and dangerous adventures 😀
Leslie Fish - Cripple's Shield Wall
I'm finishing off with something which, on the surface, is a bit more light hearted and less melodramatic. I find the lyrics very humorous, but underneath is a serious message. What happens to all the warriors, too old and disabled to go to war ? They may be left back at home to defend their farms and families, but you don't mess with them !
Leslie Fish is one of my all-time favourite singer-songwriters, and comes up with some wonderful lyrics. It was tough picking just one tune from her....
I hope you like what I've picked here; filk is a very under-represented genre, but there's some serious talent and some great stories lurking within it.