The steel helmet, and flack jacket are at hand and I'm not going to stray far from the dugout, but going through this thread again, and the one about "Last 10 songs" something occurs to me. I perceive a whole world of difference between a performer/entertainer who sings folk songs , and what I would call a "folk singer".   This thread is "The role of the performer."   I have't yet found one here on Mudcat called "The role of the folk singer."   If there is one, I'd like to catch up on that discussion, but I if there isn't one already started I'd sure as hell like to thrash this one out.

I don't know if this is a New World / Old World thing, or if it derives from how important 'The Tradition' is to individual singers.   The references to 'Duende' I have found here have been fleeting .   In discussions on this subject I've had elsewhere Duende has been used as the best example of getting at the core of what folk singing is about. The Spanish Poet Lorca wrote a superb essay on the subject.   I've recently read interviews with Galician singers who have been scathing about the 'folklorique' performers who entertain tourists to their region and purport to be part of the tradition of that area.   

I've listened to stories about songs from singers that have made the hairs on the back of my net stand on end.   I've come across people who argue that 'Sean Nos' is nothing to do with a singing style but everything to do with communicating what being from a particular part of Ireland is about.    Others mourn the debasing of the word 'ceilidh' to mean little more than a form of folk dancing.   What exactly is it that is so important about folk music that numbers of people feel moved to dedicate their lives recording and preserving songs from a particular tradition with little or no reward other than that of preserving the music itself.   What makes others, many contributors to Mudcat, want to carry this work forward.   How is it that a single unaccompanied voice, sometimes in a strange language, can unexpectedly touch something so deep inside the listener that reduces them to tears.   Some who have experienced this, describe it as a kind of ancestral call.      

Anyone give a toss?

Bill