Thomas:

Isn't it evident what Dick Greenhaus means (seriously or otherwise) -- that most performers offer so worthless a product that we'd all be better off if they just shut up and got a day job?

I don't necessarily agree with such an extreme view, but I do feel strongly that many excellent *performers* -- players and/or singers -- are woefuly deficient as *composers*. The sad fact is that so much of the potential money to be made in the music business comes from publishing, royalties, etc., and that therefore anyone looking to make a living as a full-time musician owes it to him/herself to try for a piece of the writer's action.

I live in a city (New Orleans LA) that is a hotbed of musical activity, with plenty of live-music venues operating 6 or 7 nights a week, providing plenty of gigs to a wide variety of players. It's a very common experience to thoroughly enjoy, and be genuinely impressed by, a group or an individual interpreting traditional or "cover" material, and doing a great job of it -- and then to hear the announcement, "And now, one of our originals," only to witness the entire proceedings take a nosedive into mediocrity or worse.

All of the above, of course, speaks to the superiority of traditional music (folk tradition, jazz tradition, whatever) over the commericial music biz.