I post this here because I tried to wade through all the wise and otherwise wordage in the other thread, and came to the conclusion that the thread was going around in circles.

After attempting to hack through all the erudite blather there, the person that I am concerned for is the neophyte singer who may be singing at a folk club for the first time. May be singing anywhere for the first time, which can be a very intimidating experience, and one that can determine a future course of events, depending on how the singer's efforts are received.

I recall the first time I ever sang before a group of folk singers and enthusiasts back in the 1950s (shortly after the Big Bang). I had been playing the guitar for maybe six months and I knew all of about a dozen or so songs. I screwed up my courage and the first song I sang was "The Fox," straight off Burl Ives' Decca record. Everybody there knew the song and either sang the song or had heard it many times.

But—

This was a polite and encouraging group, glad to see someone, who may develop into a singer of some merit, try his wings for the first time—even if he was singing a song they all knew and had heard many times. Nobody rolled his or her eyes and sighed heavily. Several mentioned afterward that they liked the way I did the song and told me that I delivered it well. I was most encouraged!

The ultimate result of this was that I continued learning songs, and learning about the songs, and eventually made a very enjoyable and moderately lucrative career out of singing in clubs, coffee houses, in concerts, and on television.

Had people sneered, rolled their eyes, or generally given me the "thumbs down" at that point, I may have set the guitar and the songbooks aside and decided to become an accountant.

So everybody knows "Wild Rover." And everybody has heard it a lot.

And this person is doing it because he likes it (why else would anyone learn a song?), and he likes it because it's a good song! And at this point in his development as a singer, it may be one of the few songs he knows.

I mean, let's not be so bloody pompous and selfish—and think of the future. Give new singers a chance!

Don Firth