"you seem to have a lot of nasty arguments Jim. the Boat Band for godsake..."
Do you not find something incongruous about your statements statements Al?
You witter on about not taking any notice of people "who have awarded themselves some sort of pre-eminence" , yet you object to my citing an argument that took place o this forum with someone from The Boat Band, who you have somehow placed on a pedestal, above criticism - give us a break, you really can't have it both ways!
I have put forward what I believe is a rational argument - the only reason I have raised the question of my own experience is that you and Muskie have consistently attempted to claim that my arguments come from "a committee" or a "definition", suggesting that I am a "book enthusiast" when it comes to folk song - simply not true.
My opinions are based on a fair length of experience, but they are also based on what we have been given by the 'experts' - the older singers who were part of the folk song tradition.
Both of you have either ignored what I have put here from our interviews with some of them or, in Muskie's case, gone out of the way to dismiss them in an extremely insulting manner.
As far a Jack is concerned, what they have had to say has been distorted by agenda-driven collectors, or is not to be relied on because the old singer were attention-seeking liars playing to the audience.
Now that's what I call "nasty and abusive", as is the suggestion that disagreeing with you is in some way 'superior'.
It has never been a case of any music being better or worse than another - that is an ongoing dishonesty throughout all these arguments - it is about different definitions of music.
I suggest you read what Don has to say more carefully instead of patronising him by telling him not to be led astray by the likes of us, he has a knack of summing up in a few sentences what some of us take pages to say.
Jim Carroll