As I listened to "Feet First I" this evening, I wished Sandy and Caroline had been on long enough to talk about the pleasures of collecting. I often fantasized what it would be like to discover a song and then, listening to some of the Library of Congress recordings I wondered if I would recognize a treasure. Most songs, it seems to me, don't present themselves all smoothed out. I would think you have to develop a sense of what a song could sound like as well as the very necessary appreciation for what the song is. I would like very much to hear what the Warners had to say about that, too.

As a part of my work, over the past ten years or more, I have done a lot of oral history recordings and have met a variety of people. By my standards, many of these people are close-minded and wrong-headed about what I think are important life topics but there are other parts of these same people that are warm, charming and caring. I have always had trouble integrating my real affection for these people with my disappointment about their close-mindedness. It sounds as though a number of people around Mudcat have dealt with this problem in collecting songs.

I think that what I do is focus on the good and just try to overlook the other even though sometimes I feel wimpy not "standing up" but I learned the hard way that unless I am asked, as an outsider, my views will probably do nothing more than irritate and annoy in a situation where I am The Guest.

I'd be real interested in others' experience and thoughts because this is something that is still going on for me.

Sourdough