Yes, the folk police exist.

No, people who are responsible for booking music at a club or a festival and stick to their standards are not the folk police.

I have been accosted by the folk police several times, usually because I play traditional music in what some consider to be non-traditional ways. Never mind that everyone who isn't a confirmed old-fogey traditionalist thinks I'm terribly, boringly traditional.

An example of the folk police: We were playing at a coffeehouse, with a nice stage and a good audience. We finished the first set with a traditional Bulgarian tune played on the hurdy-gurdy and guitar. As soon as we stopped, audience members came up to talk about the music and the instruments and everyone was having a really good time. Suddenly a loud voice next to me interrupted the conversation I was having to say, "I hope you don't go around telling people you play Balkan music. That's not how they do it!" Needless to say, the joy of the moment was rained on for everyone. I made some lame response like, "Yes, that is how they play it, because you just heard it played that way", and tried to get the feeling in the room back on track.

When they speak to me privately, I tell them to mind their own business and ignore them. When they publicly impose themselves on me and my audience they are way out of line. This thing I liked best about this particular encounter was that a week later we were doing the same tune in the women's handbag section of the local department store when an elderly Bulgarian woman walked up and said with surprise and (I think) delight: "But -- that is Bulgarian!"

Here is my definition of Folk Police: Those who don't have any official responsibility to do so telling you that you are playing music wrong.

John Peekstok