"Once you make your objective a career, your employer calls the tune, not you."
A thought provoking comment. And one i have given a lot of thought to over the years.
Musicians/singers get forced in to a predicament, often the idea of being full time can be attractive because it means more time to practise and hopefully improve,whereas a full time job can mean that singers musicians are often too tired to have the energy to do lots of gigs and work on new material hold down a job and look after a family/or relationship.
Jims, statement is imo too simplistic, the employer does not always dictate,The more successful career musicians singers, Martin Carthy/Christy Moore are not dictated to by employers, neither are less successful ones such as myself, if a publican insists I sing something or other that i dont want to sing I dont do it, same applies to folk club organisers[they can take it or leave it]
Jim, I think that loving the songs and liking your material should be more important than ANYTHING ELSE.
most people who choose a career in folk music know that they will make less money than in a lot of other music genres, but put the love of playing folk music / traditional music above making lots of money.