Karen Willson and Chris Weber a
re filk pioneers who have contributed to the filk community as filk gardeners, conrunners, performers, songwriters, and philanthropists.
This husband-and-wife team boldly went where no filkers had gone before, and other filkers followed.
Back in the late 1970s, before there were enough filkers in California for a filk con, Karen and Chris and some of their friends hosted what may have been the first house filks in California. These house filks helped the Southern California filk community grow.
In 1983, Karen and Chris, with Eric Gerds and Paul Willett, founded ConChord, the Southern California filk con. Karen and Chris served on the concom from ConChord 1 through ConChord 6 or 7 [N.B. Please clarify which is correct]
Karen and Chris also led the way in recording and publishing filk music. In 1978, Karen recorded Children of the Future,” the first filk audio cassette tape ever sold and the third filk recording ever made, preceded only by two vinyl records by Leslie Fish. The recording is still in print as an audio CD. Soon, many other filkers were recording their own cassette tapes, including Chris, who recorded “I Filk.”
In 1982, the lyrics to Chris’ song “Beware the Sentient Chili” were published in Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine. It was the first and possibly the only time that the lyrics to a filk song ever appeared in a professional publication as a stand-alone poem. Filkers have taken this song to their hearts; it was nominated for a Pegasus award 18 years later.
Chris and Karen are also known for their generosity to fellow filkers. In 1997 or 1998, when a filk friend was gravely ill, Chris and Karen organized the FrOG (Friends of Gary) ball and auction, which raised over six thousand dollars (equivalent to about $11K in 2023 dollars) to help fund treatment for Gary. Instead of worrying about their own problems (both were out of work), they gave of themselves to help a friend. For two decades, the FrOG ball remained the most successful filkish fundraising event ever.
In this, as in other things, Chris and Karen boldly went ahead and other filkers followed. The success of the FrOG ball directly inspired two later fundraising efforts. After Buck Coulson passed away in 1999, Consonance raised over five thousand dollars to help pay Buck’s final expenses. Years later, Consonance 2018 raised over $20,000 for a filker’s needed surgery. If not for an old-timer on the concom who remembered the FrOG ball, Consonance would not have tried to help, because none of us would have dreamed that we could raise enough money to make a difference.
For these contributions to filk music and the filk community, Chris and Karen are inducted into the Filk Hall of Fame this twenty-sixth day of March, two thousand twenty-three.