Let me say about singer/songwriters what Ian McCalman said about bodhran-players:

Good singer/songwriters are great, bad singer/songwriters are plentiful.

This is no insult to any of you, Jerry, Don, Tim etc. I am sure you belong to the good ones. You must, you`re on Mudcat. And this is not a joke: being here shows that you care for he tradition. It shows that you know more than writing introspective songs that are of no interest to anyone except the writer. I have`nt heard every singer-songwriter who is a `catter, but I liked what I found through the links to your material that you shared with us here.

We see you as fellow folk musicians that happen to write their own songs as well. The Sands family for instance play mostly their own songs, still they are seen (and advertised) as an Irish folk band.

So if we ridicule singer/songwriters: we don`t mean you.

Best
Ernest