Size matters. America is a BIGGG country.

I just put my Handful of Songs album out on CD and when I look down the list of friends who played on the album when I recorded it in 1989 it makes me realize how long it is since I've seen most of them. Sally Rogers and Howie Bursen worked on the album, and I don't think I've seen Howie since then. I saw Sally once, and she came up and introduced herself, even though she's a long time friend. It's pretty sad when your friends have to wear name tags. Ed Trickett worked on the album, and I don't believe I've seen him since then. I go down the list, and that's the case with most of the other musicians: Gordon Bok, Skip Gorman, Pat Conte, Chris Shaw and Dave Para and Cathy Barton. I don't think that I've seen any of them more than twice in the last 17 years. When I was running a concert series, I booked all of these people several times and came to know them as friends. No one is going to drive several hundred miles just to sit around the kitchen table. We have to do that in cyber space now.

My perception (tell me that I'm wrong) is that UKers, Aussies, Canucks (is that a slanderous term? I hope not) Danes, and all the rest of you are much more narrowly focused on traditional music than us Americans. I start threads on groups like Los Lobos, knowing that it will peak at three or four responses. And I do it anyway, just for the few people who might know who Los Lobos is, or have an adventurous mind. Maybe it goes back to growing up in England and mostly just hearing whatever BBC chose to play. Over here, we grew up exposed to a crazy mix of music. It doesn't seem strange that Richie Valens had a hit with La Bamba, polkas were all the rage in the forties, rhythm and blues and soul music shared the airwaves with crooners and rockabilly and Dave Brubeck. In my collection of music, folk music makes up maybe 15% of the total. It's a beloved 15%, but if that was all I listened to, I'd go nuts.

This being a folk music site, it's reasonable that there isn't a lot of response to non-folk music (even if it can be argued that Los Lobos is as "folk" as Fairport Convetion.)

Maybe someday there'll be a community for people who plain just love music.

Jerry