ABSTRACT
This chapter presents three authenticities within the folk/blues/rock nexus – authenticity of genre, of ethos, and of use – and explores their relation both to the literature on the subject and to the lived examples of Michelle Shocked and Billy Bragg. Authenticity of genre is as much a social ache as a musical quality. The rise of 'folk' is exemplary in this regard. If one of the strategies for an authentic use of music is to encourage making inroads against the larger corporate culture of music, Michelle Shocked is perhaps the poster child for the authenticity of use – or the authenticity of ethos. Instead, the authenticity of ethos helps establish Guthrie as a real folk performer. In a pattern echoing Guthrie's autobiographical tale-spinning, as well as his globetrotting, Shocked made little bones about talking openly to the press about her life when she broke in 1986.
