This has been mainly a two-person production
by Bob "Deckman" Nelson and myself. In spite
of all the skepticism and criticism that we
did not initially reveal who we were - "the
whole thing would be a lot more credible if
the responsible parties made themselves more
visible", "if it is a legitimate group it
needs a little more transparency regarding
the setup" - we have managed to do a lot in
just 3 1/2 years. This is not about us, it
is about Pacific Northwest Folklore and we
seem to be about the only group preserving
and promoting the folk music and rich folk
history of this region.

We have produced over 60 concerts in the past
3 1/2 years, including a monthly coffeehouse
concert series, several series of Sunday
afternoon concerts at the Everett Public
Library, and occasional house concerts.
We have provided venues for many of our local
folk musicians as well as some great performers
from outside our region.

We have a web site full of lots of information
about PNW Folklore, including audio and video
clips, and a bimonthly e-zine, the NW HOOT
with interesting articles and videos of our
recent concerts. And we have collected and
preserved over 45 songs of the Pacific NW
(we need more songs from Oregon - come on
your Oregonians!).

All of this we have done on a minimal budget.
All our concerts are free, but with a well-
promoted tip jar (all the money goes to the
musicians). We operate on the busking
principle, so well articulated by Artis the
Spoonman - "Busking has no cover charge, no
minimum drink, no ethnic, sex, age, religious,
or economic segregation and there is no
'middle man' restricting material. Busking
is presented to everyone, whether they slept
under a bridge or on the 40th floor the night
before. Busking is performed for fair exchange,
i.e., the audience pays what they determine
applicable, having viewed and enjoyed
the show, they care to contribute at all.
However, as essential as the money is, the
first contribution an audience member makes
is when they stop." What we do is a labor of
love, We have no committees, membership dues,
fund drives, etc. but we have accepted some
gracious donations from time to time to keep
all this going.

But we are concerned about our sustainability.
We would like this organization to include more
young people (we have had some young performers
from time to time, and are trying to include
more), to grow the tradition and not be just a
museum of what was, and to include more genres
of music - there are only two types of music,
good music and bad music. We would like this
to continue after we get too tired to do this
any more.

So this is a reflection on what we have done
in the past few years, and how we have evolved
in ways that we never expected. It is also a
call for others to become involved and eventually
to take over this project that we have begun.

Cheers, S. in Seattle
with Bob in Everett