>Now some of these groups were darned fine entertainers.
>But I just couldn't bring myself to screw up a great
>song—say, a 400-year-old Child ballad—just to get laughs.

Don, you made the point I was aiming for in my original post, but far more eloquently and with the weight of your experience.

I spent my high school years with the CMT, Kingstons and even -dare I say it?-- the New Christy Minstrels. I still get a charge when I hear my old favorites. But hearing so many songs anew, thanks to Pandora, I have started to realize how much of the shtick of these groups was parody, or mockery, or whatever you want to call it. As you said, they were still good entertainers; as I said, I still can enjoy their music. As numerous people have said, hearing them led many people into genuine quests for good folk music.

But I think the mockery issue is real and worth thinking about.