WHY WE GRAVITATE TO MUDCAT!

Subject: RE: WHY WE GRAVITATE TO MUDCAT!
From: Sooz
Date: 01 Aug 03 - 05:44 AM

I missed this thread first time around but have enjoyed reading it through now, agreeing with many of the sentiments. One thing occurs to me though - so many postings from people who are no longer active members. Where are they all?

Subject: RE: WHY WE GRAVITATE TO MUDCAT!
From: Frankham
Date: 31 Jul 03 - 02:46 PM

Art said that this was a great place to hang out. He was right!

Mudcat is one of the last few places left in this climate of the suppression of free speech that you can express what you think about folk music or politics or anything without fear of censure. It may be one of the last bastions of true democracy.

Frank Hamilton

Subject: RE: WHY WE GRAVITATE TO MUDCAT!
From: Amos
Date: 31 Jul 03 - 12:27 PM

Gargoyle:

While I would accept "consumptive", "obdurate", "chronic", or even "obsessive", I hardly think your level of talent qualifies you as a "consummate" troll. You show promise, though...

A

Subject: RE: WHY WE GRAVITATE TO MUDCAT!
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 31 Jul 03 - 12:22 PM

It is one of the few ,relatively unmoderated, BBS's left. As a consumate troll - I get feed regularly in the Cafe - and most frequently by by members of long standing. Even getting threads deleted, (like the one encouraging drunken John in Hull to ignite his tube of superglue) provides feedback that someone's fur got rubbed the wrong way.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Subject: RE: WHY WE GRAVITATE TO MUDCAT!
From: Amos
Date: 31 Jul 03 - 10:46 AM

Another kind and decent thread polluted by uncharitable remarks and dazed humor...

A

Subject: RE: WHY WE GRAVITATE TO MUDCAT!
From: GUEST
Date: 31 Jul 03 - 09:00 AM

Now the stupidity starts

Subject: RE: WHY WE GRAVITATE TO MUDCAT!
From: Mr Happy
Date: 31 Jul 03 - 08:48 AM

re:piles,

see:

thread.cfm?threadid=61723&messages=28

for details & advice.

Subject: RE: WHY WE GRAVITATE TO MUDCAT!
From: MC Fat
Date: 31 Jul 03 - 08:37 AM

Sorry to hear about your piles Mr Happy.

Subject: RE: WHY WE GRAVITATE TO MUDCAT!
From:
Date: 31 Jul 03 - 08:02 AM

All of the above.

Thanks for bringing this thread back.

Subject: RE: WHY WE GRAVITATE TO MUDCAT!
From: Mr Happy
Date: 31 Jul 03 - 06:57 AM

its helped me to access piles more new folkie fiends all over the plaice [& i've even met some of 'em by now!]

Subject: RE: WHY WE GRAVITATE TO MUDCAT!
From: Zorro
Date: 20 Oct 98 - 08:12 AM

A man much wiser than I told me once that a person will become a part of and remain a part of any association where either; he/she feels he/she is contributing to or where he / she feels he/she is benefiting. (church, marriage, service club, friendship, etc, etc.) The mudcat allows us to do both as much as we want. THANKS MUDCAT!

Subject: RE: WHY WE GRAVITATE TO MUDCAT!
From: Ritchie
Date: 20 Oct 98 - 04:51 AM

Well now,

I'm a newcomer to the web and all its mysteries, in fact I can get excited just looking at a digital watch and wonder how?

But what the Mudcat has done for me is to re-kindle my belief in music for musics' sake, either playing or listening to it!

I am even looking forward to going to all types of live music gigs in the area, like in the old days...damn it infact I'm starting to feel young again.

Thanks Mudcatters ....but I still want my Hamish Imlach lyrics and when I get them ...boy am I'm gonna sing..!!

love and happiness

Ritchie

Subject: RE: WHY WE GRAVITATE TO MUDCAT!
From: Craig
Date: 19 Oct 98 - 08:01 PM

I confess! I was out looking for some good Sea Shanties (Chanties) and wound up here. Good food, good people, good conversation. I lurk every chance I can and I ain't afraid to say so.

Craig

Subject: RE: WHY WE GRAVITATE TO MUDCAT!
From: Malena
Date: 19 Oct 98 - 03:46 PM

hey Alice,

this must be your refreshing-day!

Daniel

Subject: RE: WHY WE GRAVITATE TO MUDCAT!
From: Alice
Date: 19 Oct 98 - 03:34 PM

refreshing to bring back for newcomers...

alice

Subject: RE: WHY WE GRAVITATE TO MUDCAT!
From: Joe Offer
Date: 09 Jun 98 - 01:45 AM

Somebody started a new thread on this subject here, and this one's getting kinda full. Let's not post any more messages here, and move the discussion to the new thread.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: WHY WE GRAVITATE TO MUDCAT!
From: BK
Date: 01 Jun 98 - 10:21 PM

A little late, but here goes:

First the DT installed from 5.25" floppies on my old 8088... and years later, the Internet... like many, I came for the DT database, but have been blown away by the intellectual quality - and more yet by the wonderful personal qualitites - of the people. This was my first place on the Internet to hang around, even if I do "lurk" a lot, due to time constraints. It spoiled me both for the people and for the user-friendliness of the site.

I am on another Internet (professional) forum where many participants have advanced degrees and the level of intellectual discourse there often does not compare favorably w/here, let alone the friendliness.

This place really spoils us. It's fabulous.. Hats off to the wonderful gang that made this happen and keep the site workin' and also to the larger wonderful gang that keep the interaction workin'! ie, all of YOU!

You folks are the icing on the cake, the cat's meow, the flat-out best!! Thank you all for sharing yourselves your experiences, stories, ideas, feelings (and often encyclopedic knowledge!) about music, and all the things that naturally spin off from that sharing...

Folk music -however we may define it- forever!

Cheers, BK

BTW: it's really Buzz Keiper; the "nom d'mudcat" is due I'm such a poor/uncomfortable typist, it's easier than typing the whole thing; yes "Buzz" is my "real" name - the only one my folks ever called me - from infancy on, long before the astronaut, though it is not the one they wrote on my birth certificate but never, ever, (perhaps thankfully) , called me.

Subject: RE: WHY WE GRAVITATE TO MUDCAT!
From: wolfz
Date: 29 May 98 - 05:44 AM

i feel like i have found another music family that i can join that has world wide membership.

Subject: RE: WHY WE GRAVITATE TO MUDCAT!
From: Kiwi
Date: 28 May 98 - 05:41 PM

Susan From California- Sorry for the delay in replying. No, school lets out in almost exactly three weeks. Finals start in about 9 school days, and I'm up to my eyebrows in senior projects to finish, finals to study for, a lit mag to send to the publisher, and all kinds of other stuff that detracts from my just enjoying myself and hanging out on here. :)

Sla/n, Kiwi

Subject: RE: WHY WE GRAVITATE TO MUDCAT!
From: Alice
Date: 13 May 98 - 01:17 PM

But, Allan, unfortunately you don't have the lyrics yet!! I got out the record and played it, but couldn't make out a couple of garbled words. I was hoping someone else would post it. I'll give it another day, and if not, I will transcribe them with '----' for the words I can't understand.

;-> alice

Subject: RE: WHY WE GRAVITATE TO MUDCAT!
From: Allan C.
Date: 13 May 98 - 08:06 AM

If you take a moment to look at the thread I posted about Evolution Mama, you'll see yet another great reason why we are here. I had information on my request in no more than FOUR minutes! You just can't beat it!

Subject: RE: WHY WE GRAVITATE TO MUDCAT!
From: Bill in Alabama
Date: 12 May 98 - 04:35 PM

It has been quite a while since I played that piece. As I recall we performed it as a basic three-chord piece. If you're working out of B, your chords would be B, E, F#. The chord changes and phrasing are fairly standard.

Subject: RE: WHY WE GRAVITATE TO MUDCAT!
From: Mandocookie
Date: 12 May 98 - 03:36 PM

I gravitated to Mudcat to figure out who knew the chords to My Walking Shoes Don't Fit Me Anymore...without much luck. I am still shoeless....any help?

Subject: RE: WHY WE GRAVITATE TO MUDCAT!
From: tom a.
Date: 12 May 98 - 03:27 PM

its cool

Subject: RE: WHY WE GRAVITATE TO MUDCAT!
From: Nora
Date: 12 May 98 - 11:04 AM

Yes of course it was the database that sucked me in... I am a folk music geek, and I am just starting to try singing. I'm giving myself about 6 more months to prepare a short performance, so I've been searching for words and music. I love finding multiple versions of things. I can be pretty fast and loose about my own revisions as well: Folk music wants to be free.

But, like the rest of y'all, it's the rest of the Mudcat scene that is holding my attention now. I really appreciate the organization of the whole forum and the absence of truly superfluous material and spam. Thanks to those who organize and maintain this site.

I've been using computers and the internet for years for work, but this is the first time I've found something that truly engages my personal attention. There is a kind of accountability in this group that I don't find in others. It's not merely a place to pee on the wall and proclaim your knowledge.

I have a number of other music-geek friends and we spend a fair amount of time sitting around talking about music [incidentally I'm kind of distressed to read about the demise of folk music in another thread; I had no idea it was going under], and as a sometime radio programmer I usually try to make a point of knowing what's out there recording-wise, but this place is so full of interesting people and information, I can't stop coming back for more.

Nora Streed Winston-Salem, NC, USA

Subject: RE: WHY WE GRAVITATE TO MUDCAT!
From: Largo
Date: 12 May 98 - 08:49 AM

Why we gravitate to Mudcat?

I've composed a short answer of msgs up there; " ..I came for the database...by an accident ...and stayed for the people...by an incident..."

I LIKE the place, nice people, nice threads, ...

Cheers, Largo

Subject: RE: WHY WE GRAVITATE TO MUDCAT!
From: Susan from California
Date: 11 May 98 - 11:06 PM

Kiwi-

Is school already over in NJ? That's where i grew up, and we never finished until mid-July! I came to Mudcat to find acurate lyrics, and hung around for the fun (and to paraphrase Bert or Art or one of those guys) and the fun people. Like Kiwi I have been very busy with school this semester and am looking forward to Wednesday (the 21st ?) when the last final is written, the last presentation presented and the last paper put to rest. Then I get to do the jury duty that I have begged out of because of classes.

But I will have more time for Mudcat even when I am fulfilling my civic responsibilities. Yippee!

Subject: RE: WHY WE GRAVITATE TO MUDCAT!
From: Kyra
Date: 11 May 98 - 10:01 PM

Thank you Bill D, Bill, and everyone else for welcoming me back. Yes, I can't help but return to the scene of the.. um, nevermind. >:)

Pleased to meet you, Art.

Um, psst. Pete. I have a little secret to impart. I'm not from NZ, I'm from NJ (New Jersey). Kiwi is and has been my nickname for several years, acquired during the course of summercamp from a counselor-friend. I don't even remember why.

Anyway.. it's good to be back!

Subject: RE: WHY WE GRAVITATE TO MUDCAT!
From: Pete M
Date: 11 May 98 - 07:30 PM

Kyra, glad to see there's someone else from NZ. I was beging to think I was the only one prepared to admit it!

Pete M

Subject: RE: WHY WE GRAVITATE TO MUDCAT!
From: Mountain Dog
Date: 11 May 98 - 06:50 PM

I've always felt that true community is born of common interests, nurtured by mutual respect and bears the fruit of genuine affection. I'm grateful to be a part of just such a community here at the Mudcat.

My thanks to you all, past, present and yet to arrive.

Subject: RE: WHY WE GRAVITATE TO MUDCAT!
From: Bill D
Date: 11 May 98 - 05:49 PM

Allan...if anything might lure you back to DC for a day, it might be this...don't know if you ever saw it, but it is in 2 1/2 weeks....and Charlottesville is only 2-3 hours)

Sunday, May 31, 1998 Washington Folk Festival at Glen Echo, MD free

Presented by the Folklore Society of Greater Washington in cooperation with the National Park Service, the Washington Folk Festival is a free, two day event full of concerts, dances, crafts and stories. The Washington Folk Festival highlights the amazing cultural diversity of the Washington area by featuring more than 450 local artists representing more than 30 countries as well as many of our own folk traditions.

also Open Sings every month..check the web page here

Subject: RE: WHY WE GRAVITATE TO MUDCAT!
From: Allan C.
Date: 11 May 98 - 04:27 PM

I had begun to think that there were hardly any people left who gave a damn about folk songs. I had found myself singing the same songs over and over with nothing new to add to the list. Didn't really have much input. I searched out a bunch of written sources. But most had either songs which were played to death in the 60's or songs which nobody ever heard of - and with good reason. I stumbled into the Mudcat about a month ago starving and thirsty for a taste of good folk music. After spending a few hours glued to the database and wearing out my "print" button, I was happily exhausted. I had found songs that I had long ago forgotten, songs I had always meant to learn, and songs that I didn't think anyone else had ever heard of. I found long lost lyrics and verses that I didn't know existed. And parodies...don't get me started!

I felt renewed. Reborn. What a place! I collared anyone who would listen and told them about my newly found goldmine! I played new stuff until my fingers were raw.

Then, I found the good stuff. The threads, the comments, the personal observations, the histories! The people! My thanks not only to Max and company but also to all of you who contribute so much to make this a comfortable place to drop in and "set aspell".

I am Allan Clark. I used to do a little singing in the D.C. area, Great Falls, Montana, and Harrisonburg, Virginia. Not a whole lot, but enough to have fun. I live in Charlottesville, Virginia now but have pretty much kept my light under a bushell for quite a while now.Of course, with all the new material I have gleaned from MC, I might get out a little more soon.

Being here at Mudcat is sort of like sitting in my living room with a few other friends. We sing if we're of a mind to. We laugh and joke. Swap stories and lies; and pass on some bits of good information when the ocassion arises. Who could ask for better than this?

Subject: RE: WHY WE GRAVITATE TO MUDCAT!
From: Art Thieme
Date: 11 May 98 - 11:26 AM

Kyra (Kiwi)---Am newly on line recently & it's good to meet you.Here's hoping the medical crap subsides SOON. I do know about that crud lately -- at least my portion. Yes, be well!

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: WHY WE GRAVITATE TO MUDCAT!
From: Bill D
Date: 11 May 98 - 10:59 AM

Sheye....Shula lives near us...got a note several weeks ago thanking us for a tape we sent...said she just had not been well enough to chat. I know we all hope that she is able to beat this medical problem and be back with us...if thoughts would do it, she'd be here now!!!

Subject: RE: WHY WE GRAVITATE TO MUDCAT!
From: Bill in Alabama
Date: 11 May 98 - 06:02 AM

Hello Kiwi-- Glad you're back. Hope your school year was a good one, marching band and all.

Subject: RE: WHY WE GRAVITATE TO MUDCAT!
From: Sheye
Date: 11 May 98 - 12:21 AM

Hey Kiwi! Welcome back - we missed you.

Ok, now I'm hitting bizarre. When I first got internet a few years ago, I dropped by a few chat spots and didn't hang around for long. Drivel, mostly, and people checking to see who was and wasn't on line. Not my speed. But at the risk of this message being chatty, I really did miss ya, girl.

Another voice that's been missing is Shula's. Wonder what she's up to...

BTW, It was me that posted the lyrics to Sweet Violets, but the sheet music is in a piano bench in a house I haven't been in for some eight years. If I ever make it back, I'll be sure to pick it up.

Why do we gravitate to the Mudcat? Because we care.

Subject: RE: WHY WE GRAVITATE TO MUDCAT!
From: Bill D
Date: 10 May 98 - 11:52 PM

Kiwi!! sure...I wondered where you had gone...(they always return to the scene of the ...uh....anyway...welcome back!)

Subject: RE: WHY WE GRAVITATE TO MUDCAT!
From: Kyra
Date: 10 May 98 - 09:22 PM

I suppose it says something for Mudcat that I spent a lot of time here over the summer, got caught up in school stuff, and am now gravitating back here. (by the way, hi! It's Kiwi, remember me? I'm back!)

I guess I come because it's a chance to talk about one of my favorite passions, music, with fun, helpful people; it's a chance to trade new songs, new lyrics, old classics, and funny stories.

Subject: RE: WHY WE GRAVITATE TO MUDCAT!
From: JB3
Date: 10 May 98 - 05:42 AM

i used to have to wait until a festival or dance-week to get all-hepped-up again about traditional music. Now I find the same energy from Mudcat. A longtime singer and collector of traditional songs (My great-grandmother was a folk-singer in Kentucky), there are always bits and pieces of songs that I'm looking for and so many of them are in the database! Thank you Max et al!

Subject: RE: WHY WE GRAVITATE TO MUDCAT!
From: Bill D
Date: 07 May 98 - 05:48 PM

Pete--Reminds me of the (largely)French movement of a number of years ago called 'Pataphysics'...a sort of neo-surrealistic literary group which included cosmological speculation in their essays.... "God is the tangential point between Zero and infinity"...and "Pataphysics is as far beyond Metaphysics as Metaphysics is beyond Physics....in one direction or another" I hope no Frenchmen read this...they might just try your suggestion!

Subject: RE: WHY WE GRAVITATE TO MUDCAT!
From: Pete M
Date: 07 May 98 - 04:37 PM

Joe, thats a perfect example of what makes this site so good. The vision you conjured up of violas springing into existence in mid air all over the place at every appropriate declamation made my day. Perhaps there is life in the steady state theory after all - Hoyle et al just need to get enough Frenchmen together in one place (say 10 to power 5 per cubic parsec) all saying "viola" at once and they all become repulsive (one of Bills' tongue in cheek emoticons). Sorry but I couldn't resist having a dig.

Pete M

Subject: RE: WHY WE GRAVITATE TO MUDCAT!
From: judy
Date: 07 May 98 - 12:59 AM

Love the people and the conversation about the music I love. When I first came on (Sept 97) I used to read every thread AND reply to every other one (or so it seemed). Sadly I soon found there was not enough time for that. I miss it too, because even if the topic of the thread didn't interest me, I'd find the conversation so interesting. So now I come and lurk more and contribute when I can.

Max, there's no other place where it's so easy to read the threads. I open each one into its own window and disconnect to read them. AND they're all still there so you can search and refer to them!! Love it!

The database: what can I say, it's the best! (and getting better)(new Mac version soon?)

enjoy!
judy

Subject: RE: WHY WE GRAVITATE TO MUDCAT!
From: Joe Offer
Date: 06 May 98 - 11:14 PM

Yeah, Bill - but everywhere else, it seems that people think "viola" is a French interjection. Hereabouts, we know it's one of them there big fiddles. I figured you knew what you were talkin' about, but just didn't have the key to do the accent.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: WHY WE GRAVITATE TO MUDCAT!
From: Bill D
Date: 06 May 98 - 10:50 PM

Joe...I'm SURE you are right, but my French barely gets beyond Chevrolet Coupe'

Subject: RE: WHY WE GRAVITATE TO MUDCAT!
From: Art Thieme
Date: 06 May 98 - 08:49 PM

Bill, Grand times in DC for certain. Glad you enjoyed the jokes & tales. (I just put one at Demise o' Folk 2.)

Strange, I was serious beyond belief until Utah P. showed me that the jokelore tradition was a good way to bring folks who wouldn't generally listen to the things I cared so much about--serious folksongs about real life where many die--to a place where they were receptive and liking it. Utah could get Newt to sing along on "Dump The Bosses Off Your Back" and enjoy himself. My idea was to make it sound like I'd just thought of the line at that moment. But it was ALL to push the songs out front. The songs I had were the antiques in my shop; the humor just the paint on the walls!

Pardon me for the digression from a thread I started! Hate it when that happens--but can't stop myself. Maybe we should have a jokelore thread.

Oh, vodka & Milk Of Magnesia= a Phillips screwdriver!! What better way to get into a serious song about drugs or alcohol? Makes it lighter but the stuff gets said and heard more receptively. Made the guy who hired me happy as folks weren't walking out o' his bar -- and might be they'd come back.

Subject: RE: WHY WE GRAVITATE TO MUDCAT!
From: Eliot Greene
Date: 06 May 98 - 07:02 PM

So many genuinely helpful folks...this place is a joy!

Subject: RE: WHY WE GRAVITATE TO MUDCAT!
From: Joe Offer
Date: 06 May 98 - 06:28 PM

....besides, this may be the only English-speaking place on the Internet where one is likely to find the French word voilà spelled correctly (but isn't there an accent on the last letter, Bill?).
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: WHY WE GRAVITATE TO MUDCAT!
From: Bill D
Date: 06 May 98 - 06:13 PM

Well, as I mentioned once before, I got to sit in a room here in the Wash. D.C. area and watch this thing get created! Two people with notebooks sitting comparing notes and wishing for a better way decided to start putting their stuff on floppies...and Voila! Le' Database!...and last weekend I spent a weekend in the woods with them..Susan of DT, Dennis Cook, Dick Greenhaus, and a number of others...Bruce O, Ferrara(who just happens to be married to me),..and several others who confessed to using the database and lurking. I can't leave it alone...it provides me ideas for sings...updates my failing memory, allows me a soapbox for cherished opinions, and gives me a window into the lives of so many nice people!

And Art Thieme...I am one of the many who has stood and talked and joked with YOU after concerts and workshops, etc...(here in D.C., at Winfield, KS, at the Red Fox in Bethesda, MD.) You might even find my face vaguely familar... I am Bill Day [[e-mail]] and I have been singing songs and telling jokes I got from you for years...*grin*--"Vodka, tomato juice, and jello..= bloodclot"

quite a bunch we have here...and with Max making this the 'sine qua non' of Bulletin Boards, it will be a real force in the future of sharing this kind of music!

Subject: RE: WHY WE GRAVITATE TO MUDCAT!
From: Barbara Shaw
Date: 06 May 98 - 12:20 PM

I first heard about Digital Tradition from Dick Greenhouse himself, at a house hoot. (The man is a walking encyclopedia of folk music, not to mention a gifted musician). He was passing out copies on diskettes and looking for contributions to the database. He said that it was also on the internet, but at that time, access was not very widespread and connect time was expensive.

A couple of years later, when I got internet access, I decided to check out the online version to see if any of my songs made it to the database. (34 did, if I search on BJS. Have almost 300 in my Shaw Family Songbook, and need to get them to him someday). While I was wandering around the web site, I discovered the forum, and the addiction began.

What a great music resource, interesting and knowledgeable people from all over the world, and even a few funny ones! And such a well-designed discussion base. I usually check it out every day. My main interest is bluegrass, although I also like classical (chamber music especially, which is similar in many ways to bluegrass) folk, opera and old-timey music.

Subject: RE: WHY WE GRAVITATE TO MUDCAT!
From: Grubby
Date: 06 May 98 - 07:58 AM

Like most of you I came for the songs and stayed for the people (Thats a great description Bert). My first thread was under the title "can anybody sing" under the name of Pete but have had to change due to all the Petes out there. I was wrapped in the positive and totally supportive comments that came forward in that thread and as a consequence I have taken up this singing thing with renewed confidence. A fair way to go yet mind you, but I thank you all for giving me the extra incentive I needed to get started. I visit the site every day but confess to being more of a lurker than a regular participant but I hope to change that. I'm a mudcatter for good now. Cheers Grubby