I'm following Jerry's lead on asking provocative questions...

As an old-time musician, I am constantly amazed by the "knee-jerk reaction" by a more-than-significant number of folk musicians who dislike old-time music. This is not new...I have memories going back 20+ years of snide remarks, cliquish-behavior, and "it's just not cool" body language.

Locally (in the Philadelphia area) there is a series of folk house concerts that I've enjoyed from time to time, and I approached the organizer last year about my band getting on their schedule...her reaction was basically, "Old-Time??? No way". She never even heard us.

To me, the best old-time musicians are the ones who are most respectful of folk tradition.

Is it the folk music = singer-songwriter conundrum?

Is it that folk music must be about "contemporary" issues in "contemporary" language?

In this forum, I've observed posts about old-time music that were, IMHO, uninformed, wrong, and just plain mean-spirited.

Why? It is almost like some are defending a secret consensus among a predominant percent of folkies that old-time is crap. Is there a secret hand-shake?

What are the real issues here?

-Greg