Let me put my .02 here---don't know that the exchange rate is for pounds.

In about 25 minutes the program (programme) will start here on PBS. Will I like it? I hope so. If not, well, I have opened my mind to something that should be experienced to broaden one's horizons, if nothing else.

I have heard the CD. Liked it. Is it a favorite of mine---not at all. Do I have thoughts of its place in the "canon" if there is such a thing? Sure.

Folk music is an evolution and whether it is Seeger in Folk (which he also interpreted---aside from the original political compositions) or Gershwin, Bernstein, Sondheim, etc; ---they also evolve. So, Springsteen's take on the old "chestnuts" is as valid as, say, the new take on " Sweeney Todd", the new (actually more original) Hamlet, by Branagh, or new versions of old folk tunes (melodies) as presented by new performers such as Full Frontal Folk, Red Molly, Pat Wictor to name just a few.

My point is that things evolve---like it or not.

I still would be mired in the Weavers of the 1950s if I had not realized that---much as I admire and love them and the music--that they opened a window to find out more. The "more" turns out to be not only the traditional but the topical, which, to me, folk music was about. It was about song,dance, community---and finally about spreading the "news". Bad choice of a word before---"was"---"is" is a =better word.


Bill Hahn