Well, Bill, I suppose the noble thing would be for me to concede, but that would be a tad out of character for me....
The situation is a little different here. If the singer-songwriters crowd the traditional performers out of the clubs, that's a real problem. If somebody posts a request here for a Steve Goodman song, it doesn't inconvenience the purists in the least - especially if they post it in a thread like this that clearly identifies the song. I've loved what I call "folk music" since the 1950's, and I thought it was really great when I found a forum like this. How do you think I feel, or how do you think Alex felt, when we post a request for information about a song that we think of as folk music, and somebody jumps on us just for asking the question? It hurts a lot.
All the discussion of what is and what is not traditional is just fine. We can learn a lot from that sort of discussion. I think all of us would agree that it is essential that we do all that we can to preserve and promote traditional music. On the other hand, there are a good number of us here who love both traditional music and the music of the Weavers and Seegers and Guthries and Goodman and Prine and Greg Brown, and maybe even Peter, Paul and Mary and the New Christy Minstrels and the Kingston Trio. We would like to discuss this music without having to worry about somebody questioning whether our discussion is appropriate.
Of course, Bill, I don't know why I'm addressing this to you. I don't think I've ever seen you address a nasty word to anybody. Still, the second message in this thread is typical of messages that are common around here, and I think that kind of thing doesn't accomplish anything but make people feel bad.
'nuff said.
-Joe Offer-