Filking
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(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.... 
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!) Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock 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
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 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.
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Original filk page created in 1998. This iteration of the
filk page created 17 June 2011
Last updated 13 March 2021
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