“Right Here” has made the list of Top Folk Albums for May 2009 as posted on Folkradio.org. It shares the number 35 spot with albums by Pete Seeger, Ramblin’ Jack Elliot, and Rod McDonald. Folkradio.org is the official site of the online discussion board FOLKDJ-L. May’s list was based on 14,027 airplays by 150 DJs who posted to the list.

If you are in the thick of the folk music community you know what the heck FOLKDJ-L is and what this all means. For others, like my friend Matt W, who asked, “What exactly is this?” I will tell you.

Actually, they say it best on the folkradio.org web site: “FOLKDJ-L is an electronic discussion group for DJs and other people interested in all folk-based music (bluegrass, old-time, traditional balladry, traditional international music,singer songwriters, etc.) on the radio.” The discussion board is mostly for folk and Americana DJs to share ideas and playlists. Others of the 900 or so subscribers include artists, producers, managers, agents, venue operators, festival organizers, and so on.

The folk music community in the U.S. and worldwide is a vibrant and fluid force, moving largely under the radar of the mass media and contemporary pop culture. Sometimes it rears its lovely head above the surface, as it did in the Coen brothers 2000 movie, “O Brother, Where Art Thou,” the soundtrack for which won a Grammy for Album of the Year.

Would you like a clear cut definition of what folk music is? Lots of luck with that. One way to view it is that, in forms as varied as the people and cultures out of which it springs, this is music that grows from the ground up rather from the top down. That is historically accurate in terms of the instruments played and the way the music is transmitted. I guess that even today most people making folk music, while using modern technology, still make it with a gleeful indifference to the demands of Court and Corporation.

FOLKDJ-L is one place where you can get a glimpse of what is happening with roots music now and I’m pleased and humbled to be a small part of it.