I am a musician. I love the music, and I love interpreting songs and yarns. I occasionally visit other sites, but never for long. They are too dry and restrictive. You want to know why we folkie/blues types love our Mudcat so?? It is because our music is about the people. It is about their problems, struggles, joys, victories, ass whuppin's given and taken, cries had, laughs shared.......and on and on. Ours is the tradition of the story shared. Ours is the music of love lost and found. This is a gathering place for those of our ilk to have conversations that are not exclusively about the music, but about the events that spawn and the people who create the music. And in someways, it is similar to a house with many rooms and a different conversation in each. If you walk into one and are not comfortable or interested, you can walk out and go to another. The commom bond is music and respect for others.
I guess I qualify as an old timer here, and I have only seen the place blow up seriously once. That was when one group tried to impose its will of what this place should look like on all others. I repeat, the beauty is in the ability to take part in what you like and leave the others to their own devices. No one is hurt that way. Testament to how solid is our foundation is lies in the fact that we survived all that and our still here. Thanks be.