Guest Claire: I, too, would not classify people who object someone else's music-making choices as Folk Police. I don't call them that unless they object out loud to the musician, telling her that she is "doing it wrong".

Ebbie: Of course the fact that it is possible to do something doesn't make it a good idea. Badly done music will always be just that, and bad choices remain bad. The question is how someone responds to it. Do you just think to yourself, "Wow, that was bad. I'm glad I didn't do that." Or do you walk up to the musician and say, "That was really dumb. You ought to be ashamed to be claiming to be playing traditional music"?

A couple of my favorite tune/song combinations we used to play were "La Rotta" with "Boys of Bedlam" and an upbeat "Star of the County Down" with "Blow the Candles Out". We currently play "Nottamun Town" with a tune that I wrote that uses the flatted sixth and the major seventh that are implied by the chord pattern of the song, giving it a Middle Eastern sound. Even though those intervals don't occur in the melody of the song, the fact that the song uses both D minor and A major chords sets up the ear to not find the tune melody out of place. Finding the right tune for the song is always challenging and interesting.

John Peekstok