Everyone who reads and posts on Mudcat is not a musician or a singer or a composer of songs.

Though I have a great deal of admiration for performers and composers, I want to give a shout out for those of us who come to Mudcat because we like to learn about different cultures. And we like to collect folkloric examples. And we like to learn more about the origin & meaning of those examples. And we like to find variants of those examples, and consider how those examples, and their performances remain constant or change over time. And we like to consider how that music "speaks" to, provides information about, and impacts individuals and groups of people in countless number of ways.


Instead of a musician, or vocalist, or composer of songs, I consider myself an amateur folklorist, a collector of examples from various oral traditions. Other Mudcat Members and Guests may also consider themselves to be amateur or professional folklorists.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/folklore gives this definition for "folklore":

"The comparative study of folk knowledge and culture".

-snip-

I know I'm not the only one who treasures Mudcat because it provides opportunities for information exchange about the music and the dance and the cultures that produce or produced them.

I don't consider myself a folkie. I'm not in to song circles.
I don't go to folk festivals-or at least the type of folk festivals I get the sense that most of you mean when you say folk festivals. And I don't go to folk camps. For the most part, I'm not a social joiner.

But I like to talk and I like to "listen" to others talk. I like to learn. And I like to share what I have learned. And thanks to some Mudcatters-to my surprise-I have also found out that I enjoy playing with words. Sometimes reading and posting to Mudcat makes even a serious person like me smile.

Maybe all of this-or none of this-has to do with Jerry's question "Where have all the Americans gone?".

But I am an American. And I've not gone.

Besides, it's my 2 cents and I felt like spending it here and now.