Funny you should ask. I was recently thinking of starting a thread on a closely related subject, but I never got my thoughts organized well enough to do so. I will try to do it now. I've been thinking about the relationship between CLASSICAL training and folk music. I have known some highly skilled classical musicians who produced mediocre work in the folk field, and I've been trying to understand why.

I don't think training hurts anyone. If you missed something in your training, you can always learn it later. But I think someone who is trained in playing classical music and later takes up folk music has some additional things to learn, and not all of them learn it.

I suspect some classical musicians are taught to believe that, since classical music is the most complex and difficult kind of music to play, therefore anyone who can play classical music well can automatically play ANYTHING well. This is not true. What is frequently missing is THE BEAT.

Most folk music is grounded in dance music – rhythmic dance music, not like ballet. Dance music has to have a strong and regular beat. Folk musicians are influenced by their traditions to produce a good beat even when they're not playing dance music. Music without much of a beat seems too delicate, bland, or ethereal. It needs a bounce to it.

See if you agree with my judgment of these samples:

Here's Carolan's Concerto, performed by John Williams and Timothy Kain on guitars (for Windows Media Player).

Here's Carolan's Concerto, performed by John Whelan on accordion (for Windows Media Player).

Here's Eleanor Plunkett, performed by Rachel van Voorhees on harp (for RealPlayer).

Here's Eleanor Plunkett, performed by Anne Benson on hammered dulcimer and Ken Steffenson on guitar. (AIFF format).

I suppose tastes will vary, but I prefer the versions done by the folkies.