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Fantasy and Science Fiction Author Julia H. West

The Other Filking Julia

(The more well-known filking Julia is Julia Ecklar)

So what is filking? Filking is what people do at filksings {grin}. Actually, it's an offshoot of folksinging, and has grown rapidly in the science fiction community. We sing songs about space, about characters in science fiction and fantasy novels and movies, about computers, about fandom, about cats.... We also sing silly parodies (like "Weird Al" Yankovic does). Filk covers a lot of territory. Many people write original songs with original music, so filk has "matured" from the days of when filk meant merely a song written to the tune of a Joan Baez song or "Greensleeves" and to filk meant to write those lyrics. Nowadays one might say, "I filked their filk" if they write a parody to someone else's filk song.  It happens a lot.

I've been filking ever since I discovered it at a Star Trek convention in Arizona in the 1970s. I sidetracked into bardic in the SCA, and wrote several songs and ballads then. I'm a writer, so lyrics aren't a problem, but I'm not as good at writing original tunes, so many of the songs are to other tunes.

Utah Filk Organization

The local filk group is the Utah Filk Organization (UFO), headed by Dawnya Thill (who was also the CONduit Filk Mom after me). We have held housefilks, performed in concerts at various science fiction conventions, and traveled to a few filk conventions outside Utah, notably Ohio Valley Filk Festival and Conflikt. Our CD, "UFO: First Contact," may still be available somewhere....

UFO: First Contact album comver

Performances

The "half time" entertainment for the masquerade at CONduit 21 in 2011 was a concert by the Utah Filk Organization, and it was recorded and uploaded to YouTube.  Since the group's acronym is UFO, we have alien antennae!  I'm the person in the light blue shirt. (Both my daughters are singing, too.  I have raised them right!)

Cthulhud

The Heart of a Star

I Hate Vampires Who Sparkle

Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock

Wings

In 2018 I was invited to be the Interfilk guest at Ohio Valley Filk Festival.  Here's a YouTube video of my concert. My oldest daughter is helping out here.

Filk Friends of CONduit

Filk Groups and Filkers who have appeared at CONduit, Salt Lake City's annual science fiction convention (which, lamentably, ended with CONduit 25 in 2015). I was the Filk Mom for CONduit from the beginning for about fifteen years, so I've been able to listen to many fine filkers.

Kathy Mar is our stalwart. She came to every CONduit but the first. She has several CDs out, all of them wonderful: "Made By Magic," with Zander Nyrond, "My Favorite Sings," songs by other people which Kathy loves to sing, and a new release of "Plus Ça Change" and "Plus C'est La Même Chose" as a two-CD set. She also has a new CD/DVD set called "Kathy Mar Live".

Echo's Children. Cat Faber used to live in Salt Lake City, so we still consider her "one of ours" even though she now lives in Tennessee. With Callie Hills she formed Echo's Children, and the group put out four wonderful CDs. They were always very welcome at CONduit. Find lyrics and sheet music for the songs on the Echo's Children web page.

Jordin Kare was Science Guest of Honor at CONduit in 2004.  Yes, filk can be rocket science!

Joey Shoji was Filk Guest of Honor at CONduit in 2011, and we greatly enjoyed seeing him again.

Harold Groot, once part of the filk group Windbourne, attended CONduit several times. We enjoy his voice and his excellent repertoire!

Kathleen Sloan, a filker out of Colorado, has often managed to wend her way to CONduit in May and has been our Filk Guest of Honor.

Tri-Destiny, a Salt Lake City-based soft rock group, base many of their songs on science fiction and fantasy books and are favorites at CONduit. They have two CDs, "Tri-Destiny" and "Dragon Wine."

Charles de Lint. Although he's not a filker, when he was at CONduit as Author Guest of Honor in 2000 he gave a fine folk concert--he's been in Celtic bands for many years.

Three Weird Sisters wowed CONduit in 2001 with their harp, bass, drum, guitar, and wonderful harmonies. Their CDs "Rite the First Time," "Hair of the Frog," and "Third Thyme's the Charm" are definite must haves for filk lovers.

Songbooks

Star Wars Filksongs (about 7 Meg download)  Way back in 1977, the first Star Wars movie was released.  For some reason, I decided I wanted to put out a filk song book for Star Wars.  Very shortly thereafter, roommates and I attended Star Con San Diego, and as we drove home I importuned them to help me come up with filk songs for the book. A few weeks later, this creation came to light, put together very quickly before Utah's own Saltcon.  I may somewhere still have the masters for this, but could not find them, so this is a scan of a printed copy, with bleed-through and all.

A Breeze Through the CONduit (about 1.7 Meg download)  Since I had sheet music for many of the songs on the tape A Breeze Through the CONduit, I wanted to do a songbook.  The software for making sheet music (at least what I could afford) back then was extremely crude, but it was all I had.  So please bear with the pixely scores.

Tapes and CDs

Before it was easy to acquire filk on YouTube or Bandcamp or the many other places filk is available now, I recorded some of the filking at CONduit and put out tapes so we could listen to the songs again.

A Breeze Through the CONduit, recorded at CONduit 1, April 1991
 
Acts of Creation, recorded at CONduit 3, May 1993.

Bin There, Dun That, recorded at CONduit 4, May 1994.  This tape has been put up on YouTube in its entirety.

At one point I recorded an "SCA teaching CD" in several friends' living rooms.  This CD contains traditional songs, SCA songs by other people, and some of mine.

Rhonwen Sings Ballads and SCA Songs, 2003, by Smiling Viking.

Songs I've Written

Although I spend most of my time writing fiction, I've written a few songs. I'm putting them on a separate page so I have space to talk about them without making this page too long.  As well as pdf files of the lyrics, I've also attached midi files for songs with original tunes, and mp3 files if I have them.

Some of these songs were written for the Society for Creative Anachronism, where I'm a bard, herald and herbalist called Meistres Rhonwen y Llysieuyddes.Others were written through the years when the Muse dictated, and some for song-writing challenges like 50/90 or FAWM.  I took a song-writing course on Coursera, and my most recent songs were assignments I wrote for the course.



Original filk page created in 1998.  This iteration of the filk page created 17 June 2011

Last updated 13 March 2021