Sheila Kaye Adams tells about songs where old variants were lost once the singers heard an "official" version on the radio. It made people feel their version wasn't "right," or "good enough."

I certainly don't think that performing is any criterion for defining what is a musician. I went to an iris grower's once, she was in her 70's. Her husband and his buddy dug up the plants we bought. They told me they had played old time and country music together every Sunday for about 30 years, until their hands wouldn't let them play any more. I don't know if they ever performed outside of their circle of friends. But it seems like me that the origins of folk music come more from people like them than anything else. I think anyone who makes music purely for themselves, or who gets together with their friends for the pure fun of making music together, is a musician in my book.

Half the fun of this thread has been exploring different definitions of "musician," anyhow.