I have been trying to recall the exact place where the solicitation came from (folkbiz listserv, folkalliance listserv, I belong to a bunch) and I cannot remember.

What I *do* recall was that it was an invite to performers to appear in a contest at the Newport Folk Festival (2002?) to find the "next folk star". Now, I must admit that being the "next folk star" is at the very top of my priorities :-) but when I saw this requirement about submitting an original song, I was a bit irritated. And as I have said above this is not a glaring exception.

This same discussion also came up a few years ago on the Folkbiz listserv. My good friend Bob Mills made the point about original songs vs. traditional material as he is a wonderful musician and, like me, does not compose. Unfortunately the discussion seemed to go nowhere and everytime it gets brought up, it gets into the usual definitions of folk, etc. and I have never seen any solutions offered either. It really has to do with changing people's perceptions and I am not sure how one goes about doing that. here on the Mudcat I know that the "choir" is listening, but it's a different story out there in the business of folk. At least here in the US, that is.

It was interesting tho, as I was searching the archives for the exact post to one of the listservs I did come across this one from the FolkBiz list dated 8/17:

"Just got back from the Newport Folk Festival--is it my imagination or is NO-ONE hiring traditional folk musicians anymore?"

and Mike Agranoff responded:

"No, but it's for sure that Newport is not hiring traditional folk musicians anymore."

So I guess I just blew my chances to ever be included in Newport, eh?

All the best,
Deb