I can't seem to let this go - it pushes a lot of my buttons. Peg said:
"but I kind of doubt that most people who go to an effort to learn new material would admit they do so in order to demonstrate how clever they are...this does not make sense to me..."

Some of the singers I hang out with seem to have an "obscurer-than-thou" attitude about repertoire, where, when we get together to swap songs, some folks seem to be trying to out-do one another in the "Oh, I learned this song from an antique 1832 song collection that no-one owns but me..." category. I've had some subtle (and some not-so-subtle) put-downs by the doyens of the singing session not because of the way I sang a song, but because my source wasn't esoteric enough...a typical reaction being:

Them: "Where did you get THAT version?"
Me: "Oh, I learned it from Daithi Sproule's new CD."
Them: "Oh - he's not very traditional..." spoken in a flat, put-down tone.

None of these people would ever admit that they learned a song for the sake of one-upsmanship - but they all clearly do it from time to time. This may be a social dynamic only encountered with this group of people - but, human nature being what it is, somehow I doubt it. Now that I'm not a newcomer to the song circle anymore, I'm not so sensitive, but, believe me, when I was beginning to sing, that kind of reaction was withering. You might say "Go find another group of singers", but, short of moving to another city or coast, it's hard to find a new, different group of people to hang with!

Anyway, to drift this back to the thread topic, Dan and Bonnie Milner have always been warm and friendly singers who love their songs, and I'll happily listen to a performance by them or sit and swap songs with them anytime!