Wally,

If I ran the circus, you WOULD make a good living doing what you are doing. I believe in making a good profit for a good product (I've bought your products and am here to tell you they are good!). And I have no problem with your advertising openly on Mudcat, nor would I have a problem with you tooting your companies horn a little louder than you do here. In fact, I think more advertising by other companies that sell traditional music would be a good idea, as might other efforts for Mudcat to generate revenue. It would be a GOOD THING if there was enough money to PAY Max and Dick and Susan et al. for what might be one of the single best efforts at preservation since Lomax. And by the way, correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't musicology Lomax's JOB--what he did for a living?

There always seems to be a negative attitude towards any incorporation of economic concerns or activities into the efforts to preserve and promote folk and traditional music. There is a far too developed slippery slope fear that the minute anyone cares even a little about making the smallest amount of money, that it might as well be the Home Shopping Network.

There also seems to be a mistaken mythology that just because some of what we call folk and traditional music evolved as a part of everyday life instead of as saleable entertainment (e.g. work songs, songs sung around the fire after work was done, sea shanties, etc), that all of traditional music is like that and will be tainted by contact with economic concerns or activities. This is not even remotely the case. Robert Johnson did not write his songs and perform them with no thought of profit. Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee did not play for free. O'Carolan played his harp not out of nobility, but out of a desire for coins with which to buy his bread.

Yea, I know, its a diatribe, but dag-nabbit, I believe in the honor of getting paid for ones work, especially if its hard work, good work, and work that takes a lot of time and effort. Money is a good thing, just ask those who don't have any.