Hi, Sandy: No disagreement with what you have to say. If anyone writes a song that passes into the tradition, they're not likely to ever know it because they'll be long since dead. You believe that a traditional musician is a person who has learned his/her repertoire from family and neighbors who form the community from which the person comes. By that definition, I figure that the last traditional musician will die within the next twenty years. Certainly, none of us old young 'uns like me would ever fit that definition, and as "traditional" is just a category, I think that's right. I would never consider any songs I've written "traditional" and I seriously doubt that any of them will ever become "traditional." With society so transient now, that whole family/community foundation is scattered all over the country. Just because a song continues to be sung for a hundred years doesn't make it a "traditional" song. There are popular songs from the turn of the last century that are still being sung.

Anyway, Sandy, my revered friend, there aren't going to be any Sandy Patons going in to the hills to record the next generation's Frank Profitt. There aren't going to be any more Frank Profitts, by your definition.... that learned their songs from family and friends in a localized community (unless you revise your definition of "community" to include Mudcat and the whole folk community.) Eventually part of the definition of a traditional musician will be that they're dead... :-)

I write all this out of a great love for traditional music, and I think that you and I are in complete agreement on what a traditional song is. I also believe that there are some great songs that have been written in recent years by writers like Bill Staines that will stand the test of time. Would you consider a Bill Staines song "traditional" if they're still singing it a hundred years from now? I don't think so... Do the lyrics have to be changed in order for it to become "traditional?" But then, I'm wandering off thread.... Fun to talk about it, though.

I send all my love to you and Caroline.

And what are we doing up at these God-awful hours?

Jerry