I've heard 'Marble Halls' referred to as the Macbeth of Folk singers - never called by its real name and never sung anywhere not a stage....

I try to sing songs that other people are not doing. Every time I prepare a song I've not heard for years, I find everyone else is doing it. Songs that everyone was doing a while ago fall by the wayside as others take over.

I try very hard to sing new ones (new to me) so that others have the opportunity. If someone didn't do new songs, then soon we'd be stuck with the same 8 songs to the same 5 tunes, much in the way that Irish session music sounds to a non folky person.

Sometimes though, it's easier to write a new "traditional" song than it is to find one that doesn't upset at least one ethnic, racial or gender type pacifist.

LTS