I have a problem with a lot of songs I am asked to play.

I don't like even a little bit, "The Old Man" except for a few lines about the color of a pheasant and fishing it is a baddly written mess of sentimental obfuscation.

I don't like "The Voyage" particularly for much the same reason., just don't like it. Same with "Grace", "The Unicorn Song" and a bunch of others. But the audience has paid to hear me entertain and the people with the money are paying me to entertain and that stuff is what they find to be entertaining, so I do it. Its the job. But its also the job to enrich the audience, so I do "My Old Man" by Jerry Jeff Walker. And Instead of "The Voyage" I give them "Outward Bound" by Tom Paxton.

I draw the line when some one asks for "New York, New York" or "Edelweiss". And because I play a banjo I surely must know "Dueling Banjos". Some jackass Irish lounge singer in the Catskills started doing Las Vegas act tunes and now every blue hair that ever saw a show at The Pines thinks folk singers should wear a tux and do Sinatra.

I tolerate a few requests I don't like because I want to be hired next year. But jeepers gimme a break and at least keep them close to folk.

Don