Listen Catspaw you smartass, you haven't a clue who I am, cause (until tomorrow) I'm invisible. So if you aren't going to contribute anything negative about singer-songwriters, why don't you just go to bed before you start annoying the Aussies. (they'll be here any minute.) While I'm untraceable, I'm going to take a huge risk here. I own TWO James Taylor albums!
Seriously though, I think Mary's point about folkies wanting a kind of "exclusivity" with their favourite performers (or songwriters) is spot on. I have to admit that when I first discovered folks like Robert Johnson and Bill Broonzy, I liked the fact that no one else at my school had ever heard of them. I NEEDED that exclusivity to feel "different" which was darned important to me at the time. If you were not very good at being "part of the crowd", then starting your "own crowd" (even if it had just one member) was the next best thing. After a year or so, no power on earth would have made me want to join the mainstream 'cause I had "friends on vinyl". My song off the new album "Gin Mill Syncopators" is about that time.
I still have some huge "obscure " songmakers that I love, like Norm Hacking, Bob Coltman, Jerry Rasmussen, Rick Speyer and Joe Hall. But I'm secure enough now to REALLY wish these guys would have hit records and make a million.

Pat "Banjo" Patterson