Well Don, tonight I did just that.

I went to Club Passim's, a folk club for 50 yrs is plastared over the stage's flag.
The 2 acts I went to see tonight have been heralded as folk, 1 wining folk album of the yr & other "folk" awards.
I sat through the 1 st act in hopes that the 2nd act had a scent of folk. It did she did "Rose Connelly" with 2 others that were invited up the stage. Every other song written & sung by both act were about themselves. This travelling adventure & that heart brake, the loss of this loved one & how tough it was in college. Never a chorus or a refrain to join in on, even if you wanted to, never a sing along on this one was heard, it's almost like they write them so you can't join in with them, it's their trip & you're not invited on the ride, you're only invited along for "their" telling of it, cheap SOB's. Then I thought that maybe they thought the audience was "dumb", couldn't sing along, 'duh'. I don't have to sing along, I know cause I love long ballads & I don't peep. I finally left before the 2nd act was done. I couldn't take it any more. I didn't go there to be given advice in the form of song or to hear the woes of some self absorbed singer songwriter. I went there to enjoy myself, to become part of the music that was taking place, I wanted to be absorbed into their music. Instead of finding the "Beef", I was taken for a ride, I nearly vomited, motion sickness, again my stomack sussed out the truth.

When Woody sang a song about his hard travelling & his shoes, you know it wasn't about him it was about all those stuck in the same boat as he was or about those in the boat he saw passing by. He wanted others to sing his songs, he wanted others to sing along, he wanted folks to listen to the story of the people he seen & met, or the trobles & joys he saw that others knew & felt, he want the rest of us to feel what he wrote about.
Yes, Woody & other "folk" singers & writers of folk songs wrote about the common folk they connected with through song with these "common folk", that was part of the tradition, the tradition was about "life according to those that lived it", not about my little world, it was always bigger than that. There is no connection with many of these contemporary singer songwriters, they write about themselves & not much else & even when they do write about something other than themselves it's how "they see it" or "it affected them" or what it did to 'their' way of life.
It's I,I,I,I. They don't even care if you get it or sing to it, they're not part of any bigger picture. I'm going home now to get some "beef". I'm sick of this thinner than soup music.

Barry