Much of it has to do with ownership. With who decides. With who calls the shots. Trad means thousands of things all around the world. I would suggest that more people around the world know a stanza from "Blowing in the Wind" than know any stanza from any Child Ballad. If music is supposed to be shared and passed around, then let people do it. A song like "Last Trip Home" speaks more loudly to me than anything from the 1700s.

That said, when I send out CDs of my own writing to prospective radio stations, they will be sent NOT based on what various radio shows call themselves. The CDs will be sent based on their play lists over the past six months. If they played Prine, Staines, Lightfoot, Dylan, Steele, Lakeman (and newer contemporary songwriters)--hey, maybe they'll play something from me, too. If they have played Trad, then they have no need or want for anything I've ever done. That's the way a market place works.

Some of this stuff reminds me of a Literature class I was in about 25 years ago and a discussion that centered around the true meaning of LITERATURE. I horrified the prof when I said, "Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness' makes me want to chew my leg off." Keriste. You'da thought I pissed on the Persian rug. He tried to belittle me as opposed to ask why. I suggested that more people had read Robert Ludlum than had read Joseph Conrad, and while that did not necessarily speak to the quality of either writer, it certainly spoke to their popularity. He responded by saying that popularity often results from people appeasing their baser instincts. Twenty five years later and nowt's changed. To get 'honours' in the course I jumped through the hoops and wrote 'all the right things', and Ludlum was still out-selling Conrad. And Dylan is still out-selling Child.