Joe, I **hope** none of my occasionally argumentative words have appeared 'nasty' to anyone...and I certainly wasn't asking (or expecting) you to 'concede' to anything...I was just noting that, when we have aired a lot of the issues, we find many areas of agreement...and if we were all in the same room, talking and singing, we would probably get along pretty well most of the time.

I have a genuine concern that the same process that you refer to in the clubs, where the 'old' stuff is gradually overwhelmed by the 'new & different' stuff will eventually make even this forum a sea of singer-songwriter,pop-commercial stuff with the 'purist' stuff lost in the shuffle. Am I too paranoid? Perhaps I am--time will tell.

**Re-stating my disclaimer**...purist, traditional, old,etc. music is NOT the only thing I like..I sing and play and listen to many things which even I know are not folk/trad....I just want to be able to find it when I want it....much as environmentalists want to preserve 'natural' ecological areas so our grandchildren don't have to go to a few specialized zoos or arboretums to understand what once existed in the wild.

I know that old-growth forest and herds of buffalo will never again be the 'norm', just as groups of friends making up songs & tunes just for fun will never be the 'norm' again...partly because we no longer 'need' that to have music and express feelings...we can go buy something that says something about what we feel or about our society---except that the tendency is then to allow the 'store-bought' songs to do a lot of the defining of trends and feelings...and I really think there is a difference between the way it works now and the way it used to...so I keep on trying to keep those differences clear in my mind.