Don't take things to heart Bob and I do know that you have written quite a few good songs yourself.

However, my view is(Not shared by everyone, I know) that it's probably better for a singer or performer to offer a "balanced" set of material to an audience, at least in the early stages until he or she has honed their craft. That way, they are less likely to alienate a potential audience and may even build up a good following in the meantime.

Then, when they have established a good repertoire of their own material this can become a much bigger part of the act. In some cases, an artist may eventually have built up a very large back catalogue of original material and can rely on this alone without resorting to perfroming traditional material or covers/interpretations if this is what they choose.

Of course, there's nothing wrong with song writing and we always need new songs. However, I've never really been happy with it as a genre in its own right to the exclusion of everything else. In my opinion, the best song writers and composers are those who have also familiarised themselves with the music of others prior to embarking on their own ventures.