Hey GLoux: Which definition of old-timey music are you talking about? The obviously prejudicial one that claims that old timey bands just keep playing the same boring, simplistic tunes endlessly?
THat's not what the Double Decker String Band or Major Contay and The Canebrake Rattlers do (for more recent bands) and it sure ain't what Charlie Poole, Gid Tanner, Grayson & Whitter and the Carolina Tarheels did. Now, I've been at festivals where, the moment I sit down to play a song, I have eighteen approximately tuned banjos and fiddles joining in. If that's what people think "old-timey" is, then I agree that it does go on and on.

Now, we all show our prejudices in here.. me included. I happen to love old-timey music in all it's myriad ramifications. Fortunato (Chance and his wife) do a wonderful approximation of an old time radio program (including phony commercials) and I consider their music olf-timey. It sure as hell isn't new-timey.

Maybe "what we have here is a lack of commnication." You may be dealing with the age old split of singers and instrumentalists (all of whom sing. There are certainly coffee house venues that have developed a loyal audience who come to sing along on easy chorus songs, where they might or might not respond to an old-timer band. Try to sing along on the Chorus to Charlie Poole's Frankie and Johnnie.. Coffee houses and concert series take on a life of their own after awhile, narrowing down to singer-songwriters, bands or more tradition-based singers. There is a little bit of petrification that occurs through time where the audience limits the range of what they are willing to listen to. My best advice is, stay away from places like that. When someone would tell me that their audience wouldn't like my music, I just said, "You know your audience... thanks for being honest," and moved on. When I would tell musicians the same thing who asked for bookings at the series I ran, too many of them responded "I can make anyone like me." Yeah, sure... I was really gald not to book them with that attitude.

Now, I was still running my concert series, I'd book your band in a heartbeat. And my audience would love you, as they loved other old-timey bands. And, just exactly the opposite of what people criticize old-timey bands for, my audience liked them because they put the song first. If that meant a lack oaf fancy breaks between each verse, that suited my audience fine. The came more for the songs than for fancy instrumental licks. Didn't make the audience superior to a bluegrass audience. Just different.

Jerry