Reading all the fine observations you all have made has me thinking in several directions at once. Reminds me of that "multiple personality" thread. It does beat dining alone...

Someone once said to me, "Art, the ballads and songs aren't good because they're old. They are old because they are good."
And I've always ebjoyed hearing the pops and clicks on tapes I've made from the old 78 rpm records. For me, it was like hearing the passage of time itself. All of those sounds were additional pieces of the timeline that became audible over the years. Yes, CDs are an advancement. More power to 'em. But...

Just about everything Mark and Rick and ditty have said rings real true to my ears. The same goes for the positive additions you've all made to this thread. I do believe those of us who have learned (yes, learned) to value traditional music over the racing passage of years and decades have been immeasurably enriched by it.

Making cash from performing the music should not get in the way of feeling one has done a decent job of presenting that music in a trad way. Yes, it does prompt one to change aspects of the presentation. For me, it only meant adding patter and humor that was most often taken directly from the folk archives' theselves--as with tall tales etc. But my motive was always to push the song to the fore---to set up a situation where 20th century people, who may or may not been "folkies", were willing to accept a song with 30 verses that told a wonderful story---and a decent tune was there also. The song was always done with a love and respect for that song, that tradition -- and for the historical and geographical parameters that gave the singers I had learned it from their particular style, world view and persona.

The young person this thread is to help in his delvings into the world of folkdom probably never thought it might need this kind of a commitment from her/him/whatever. Once again, I'm reminded of what Sandy Paton told me when I asked him something like, "How do I get credibility and become a folksinger?" He told me to hit the road and soak it up pretty much. I did that very thing for the next 40 years. I financed my rambling (AND my family) by making my living singing the songs I found---the ones I respected totally for their connection to the tradition and to the people who carried the tradition onward. Some weren't folksongs---some were. It took me a LONG TIME to see the differences clearer. Kid, don't expect quick insight. Learn some older styles of playing your instruments but you will add your own cliches to the old styles---and that is when your own STYLE will emerge. It is precisely those cliches that will make you , maybe, different from others. It will be a natural process precipitated by your doin' of it and the passage of time. That's not unlike the process that made songs traditional in the first place. Don't expect big bucks---They ain't there. (I can vouch for that.) But the road you take will be your own variation on a "thieme"---so to speak.

(Sorry for the pun.)

Art Thieme