" why not the nearest to the last word possible? why not attempt to do something well?"

paraphrasing my post in the 'official announcement' thread,

because it is a spare time, volunteer project---being a LARGE project does not make it less subject to whims and mistakes. Those who do this ARE trying to to do it well, and changes and updates have been made, and will, no doubt continue to be made.....but I doubt it will soon achieve the status of a scholarly repository of deeply researched music...with 8000 entries, that would prove daunting!

What we DO have is a number of quite knowlegable people reading this forum. Malcolm Douglas, Masato, Art Thieme, etc...(yes, even Bruce Olson, I'd bet)...and an inquiry on a song or subject will soon get replies....which can be found thru the search of threads.

The above disagreement about "Strange Fruit" **IS** available to read, and those who read it can decide which answer suits them. Many additions, corrections, arguements, expositions...etc...have been made in 6 years, and thus supplement very nicely a database which will probably always have its natural weaknesses.

I suppose, if Mudcat can continue indefinately, and if some "organized" project for corrections and updating can be created, it might come closer to what Bill Kennedy hopes for....but mostly it is one 'source' among many...and one with some VERY neat tricks!