It doesn't matter how often a song is sung, or done to death or whatever, there is always someone who hasn't heard it yet. How are songs going to be passed on, whether they are folk, classical, religious or just plain stupid (what is the tune for great green gobs of gopher goo??), if people feel they can't sing them anywhere? I hate 'The fields of Athenry' as much as the next man (what do you mean you like it....), heard it five times in one session a few years ago, but that doesn't mean that I couldn't stand hearing it again (under certain circumstances), and I know several people who heard the parody last year and had never heard the original. Do keep singing the songs, because that is the whole point of folk.

A song is like an inherited coat, it should feel a little uncomfortable at first, and then you wonder how you did without it. You wear it everywhere, until folks wonder if you ever had another coat. Then it goes out of fashion. You hang it in your wardrobe until a year or so has passed, and then someone will come along and ask where it went. You'll go home, take it out and ask if this is what they meant. They'll say, 'I've been looking for something like this', and the circle starts again.

I'm the worst person at heckling people who sing the same song continuously, once attended a club for a month where the 5 resident singers had a repertoire of seven, count them, seven songs between them....., but it does mean that I can sing those seven songs, practically in my sleep. There are people there who have never heard them, maybe I should start the circle going again.

LTS