Still crazy

Surveying the local folk-music landscape, Tom Laskin notes the canyon dividing supporters of traditional folk and those who prefer contemporary singer-songwriters. As Ken Lonnquist tells Laskin, "What there is of a folk scene here is highly factional.... [I]t can be a very snooty thing, because there are a lot of people for whom folk music is sort of a dead language, like Latin. It's something to be preserved." Peter Berryman, half of the city's most prominent folk duo, adds that it takes patience and fortitude to persevere as a local folk artist. "We don't want to be ripped off, so we'd rather keep handling things ourselves," he says. "I mean, we're 40 years old and still putting up posters on State Street." Both Berryman and Lonnquist are still at it, too. Lou and Peter Berryman open for rabble-rouser Jim Hightower's April 6 speech at the Barrymore. Lonnquist, who performs solo and with the Kenland Band and the Whateverlys, appears at the Children's Arts Festival on April 12 at the Overture Center.