i have a broken hand so my typing is worse than usual.

i notice that most hereare american. i'm not old enough to remember the sixties but i remember playing the folk scene in the seventies. i'm canadian, and travelled in the usa and britian a lot when i was young. i have to say that americans are as friendly in the folk comunity now as when i went doen there first in the seventies and canadians and brits remain full of ethnic and class bigotry in the folk scene.

in the us i have been picked up off the street to play a local folk festival--while buskin!!! i wasn't street walking!, while in canada west of the ottawa river i will never forget being told i wasn't welcome at the local folk club as nova scotians pay thet awfull country music"and wee do genuine folk"(i was trying to get in free by performing as i didn't have the money to pay .

in britain the irish and gaelic scottish music snene in london is compeletly seperated from the english and the gaels ARE NOT WELCOME at any emg;ish song circle.

being canadian i didn't figure this out right away as we are kinda bettween two stools so i would go to english domonated folk scenes and play gaelic influenced stuff and told " we only allow sisnger to sing songs from their own countries"

in vancouver i was similarily told "we do canadian music here"

now it took me years to intellectualize this as when i left home i didn't have a grade ten education and now i have two university degrees. (at fifty). but i really see a bigotry in canadian folk west of the ottawa river, as much class based as ethnic. they tend to see people who act and talk like cape bretoners or newfouindlander as lower class as the english see people who behave as irish do and talk that way as lower class. the english in both palces seem to think that putting people in a class category makes their bigotry ok. a lot of them are ostensible lefties, so i have a saying (does anyone remember stalinist philosophy". anglo lefties have gone past socialism for one country now they have it down to socialism for one class.