System Architects as Storytellers

…a traditional ballad Sandy [Denny] had taught them [Fairport Convention] called ‘A Sailor’s Life’…turned English folk music on its head. The implications of their version of this old ballad have reverberated far and wide. A member of Los Lobos told a friend of mine that they had been just another rock band from East LA until ‘A Sailor’s Life’ challenged them to find in their own Mexican traditions something as rich as Fairport had found in their English ones.