I'm flattered when people around here play one of my originals...even if they don't play it very well (which is sometimes the case). All I ask is that they tell the audience it's my song.

I think it's great for people to learn songs from other people and play them. It's part of what brings us together in our mutual creativity.

As for royalties...ha! None of us is ever going to make enough of those to buy a meal at Rombos Restaurant in downtown Orillia. You've got to be 16 to 26 years old and look like Shania Twain or Britney Spears before that sort of thing is likely to happen nowadays, given the way the music business operates.

What would I call "stealing a song"? Actually stealing the words and music from someone else and registering them under copyright as your song. Lying, in other words.

If you feel that trad song is yours, you just gotta play it so well that you make it yours.

- LH