The genre subdivision deal has everything screwed up. You could rewrite Tom Lehrer's "National Brotherhood Week" to sum up the current disjointed state of folk music:

All the bluegrass hates the newgrass
and the folkies hate the old time
classic country hates top forty
and everybody hates the banjo!

The easy way to change things is to get offline and go make music in your community. Give free lessons on your front porch. Fix up a couple of pawn shop guitars and give them to kids. Jam in public places. Stop trying to fit into a group and put your efforts towards being part of the world around you.

You can use the internet for this sort of thing. I've released four music books online under an open-source concept - and the crazy thing is that in spite of being freely available online we're still making a living selling the printed copies. I honestly believe that the magic of folk music is that the only way to keep it is to give it away.

The genres forgot that. They want to make bluegrass or old time or Irish or any other kind of music an exclusive club. The end result of that kind of thinking isn't just bad music, it also leads to bad people.

Screw the elitists. Go out and make music. Make people smile, make people think, make people angry and make people aware that this, all of it, is OUR music. Everybody is welcome and everybody has something to add to the mix.

Don't wish for a change, be the change. All it takes is a song.

-Patrick