D'Cats

At the risk of getting controversial, and into something that's been talked to death, what defines the distinction between a folkie and a singer/songwriter? The question is not wholly gratuitous--I'm honestly curious. Someone on the Coffehouse thread mentioned that Club Passim is now a singer/songwriter venue with only a few folk acts, and someone else said Falcon Ridge *folk* festival is oriented toward singer/songwriters.

It seems to me that the "folk songs" of tomorrow are the creations of today's "singer/songwriters." We just don't know which ones will survive, and, since the recording industry seems to determine the distribution and popularity of a given music genre, instead of the mouth to ear folk tradition, the quality of what will survive in the minds of the public may be not be the best of what today's crop of singer/songwriters has to offer.

Also, to refer to the copyright police thread, the mouth to ear tradition ensures that improvements and embellishments creep into the songs from the various musicians who perform them (a type of thread creep) so that ultimately, the most interesting/accessible versions are the ones that get perpetuated. I compare this idea with 1) the copyright notion that the *only* way something is perpetuated is *as it is written* with appropriate credit given AND 2) the insistence of the listening public, who seem to want to hear songs *just like on the radio, CD, whatever*)

Comments?

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