Music of all kinds makes me happy and always has, even sad songs. I've never really wanted to do anything with my life except play music, and I've just retired (mostly) from performing after 46 years of it. Traditional folk has been my primary passion for thirty-some years, but it's closely followed by prog rock, blues, and medieval music. All of it is pure joy.

I think someone up-thread had the right idea: some people are just sad, and some of those are in the folk music community. If they didn't listen to traditional folk, they would still be sad people. There are sad people listening to jazz, and sad people playing rock, and sad people who don't pay any attention to music at all.

John P