Interesting questions

"Do we judge songwriters more harshly than other folk singers and if so why?"

I can only answer this from a personal perspective, from being a member of an audience. I go to a club or a session to "join in" the evening in some way. This usually means joining in choruses or being engaged by, or able to identify with, the songs being sung.

While I don't expect floor singers necessarily to have the level of expertise or polish of the guest, I do feel that whatever they do should contribute to a general feeling of inclusiveness, whereby everyone is feels they are making a contribution to the evening.

This probably makes it extremely difficult for an unknown floor singer to come along and sing his own material, unless it is of an unusually high standard or (s)he is able to 'connect' in some way with the audience

Ultimately I feel this has to come down to good folksingers and bad folksingers. When I refer to good and bad folk singers I'm not referring necessarily to a standard level of musicianship. The good singers communicate with their audiences, the bad ones alienate them. I think a good folk singer can get away with a poor song now and then. But it would need to be a truly exceptional song to outshine a poor performer.

The implication of your first question El Greco, via my convoluted way of thinking, is if we judge songwriters more harshly it is probably because they are the poorer folksingers. Fortunately this is not always the case. I guess if you stand up in front of people and expect them to take you seriously, then you have to be a performer first and a songwriter second. If you can do both then wonderful, but there's no point in writing a good song if you can't put it over to an audience.   


"What advice would you give to a songwriter wanting to inflict their "baby" project on you, in order to make it more interesting for you?"

I speak as Mr Sullen in the third row here.   

Slip it in with other songs you are reasonably confident that I either know or like. If we're sailing into uncharted waters I don't particularly want to know about it. I like to feel the captain knows where he's going.

Make it look as though you've sung this song a hundred times before. I'm of a nervous disposition, and don't want to be anybody's Guinea Pig. On the other hand if the song is a run away success and you end up headling festivals around the world, I will want to bang on about how I heard the first performance of your song from here to eternity.

In your introduction don't say anything that might suggest that this song is anything less than sure fire winner. Your insecurities make me uneasy. I also like hints about how this song might relate to me. Please flatter what's left of my intelligence and taste in music at every available opportunity, preferably with a touch of humour.

I most definitely don't want to hear about your problems before, during or after the song. I've got plenty of problems of my own and I haven't come tonight to inflict mine on you.   

Please note my reaction and that of my colleagues. If we are less enthusiastic than you think we ought to be, please don't assume that repeated singing on every subsequent occasion will force us to come to our senses. I can assure you it won't. We are your audience, you are a folk singer, while we are predisposed to like you and want you to do well, we remain judge and jury in this matter. Our decision is final. In this instance we felt you should have done better.   

Oh goodness! I've gone on a bit. I hope I haven't offended anyone.


SM