Al, dear friend. Your statement above about playing after work... That says a lot. You see, when folks are making a living at music, it gets more complicated. No mater how gentle the management of a band, folks are used to looking at the "boss" as a despot. In fact, in my band, who ever came into the band brought their music, their identity and were welcome to be part of the process. However, most where looking to put bread on the table, which is fine, that is why I busk, but, the fact is that that is only part of the process for me. For me folk music is the voice of the people, that voice not heard in the press. So, folks where drawn to my band because of the excellence of the music, but wanted to make it an engine for money at the expence of the reason I write music.
I think folks who play folk music causualy are great. Good part of keeping things going, however, folks like Danny Hannon, like Cahal McConnell's two brothers, folks like so many in the north of Ireland who write music for their lives, that is what keeps folk music from being an anacronistic musium peace destined to be as important as the works of Richard Smirt, nice music but not very powerful in social change. Believe me, those of us who play for the lives of our class rather than after class are less concerned with what instruments ARE folk and which are not. I happen to play the Uilleann pipes rather well, and that takes a dedication to old traditions, but no tradition is static. Cultures grow and change and that is still tradition as long as the roots are preserved.
As to teaching three days, with summers, I suppose, nice work if you can get it. Drop me a PM with a snail mail address and I will send ya a couple of CDs. By the way, what do you teach?
Cheers
Larry