On my own or with a group or the folk duo, Russ & Eli, I must play different music for people who were alive in the 60s (or may as well have been) than with my peers of college age.Most people of 17-21 associate music with parents or with children's music. For people who think that Woody Guthrie was just another Iriving Berlin (Woody is probably rolling over on the Coney Island shore), I play for them the verses of "This Land Is Your Land" that schools rarely do and people like Arlo Guthrie and Pete Seeger nearly always do.

The content of the songs has to be different with people who "weren't there" when folk music was more common and popular. Songs written about experiences they have had are more accessible, like when I adapted "What Shall We Do with a Drunken Sailor" to be about what happens backstage before a play premiers; few people my age have ever sailed 'round Cape Horn bound for South Australia.

There's a moral here: anyone can enjoy folk music, you just have figure out which songs are right to play, perhaps writing some tailored to a specific audience.

Russ