Well look at the demographics and some interesting possibilities emerge. Look at all the baby-boomer folkies who now have enough gray hair to be taken seriously in the world. This generation has been a big enough marketing target to give the world a lot of things that might never have been so widespread.

F'rinstance, just now we are about to see how the aging of this market group will finish tipping our environment in favor of accessibility for all. I don't think that the ADA and the widening of store aisles and bathrooms were just responses to the disabled community's outstanding ability to organize and agitate for much needed change. I think the financial powers-that-be saw the baby boomers coming in droves (on Rascals), purses and pockets bulging with the old do-re-mi, and they made sure we could all get in the door to buy our Depends! Really-- our boomer generation has real power, the sort we never dreamed of when we marched just to be heard! We don't use it intentionally as much as we did when the fire in our bellies was fresher.

So how does this demographic power affect the present and future of traditional music? We will find out. I don't know if we can apply intentionality, but I do know that much of what I love about the personalities and personages of Mudcat is the result of being around for awhile, and I would bet most of us are indeed boomers? So is the trad music subset of the boomer market big enough to use the old dollar vote to change things?

I don't know, but I know that many of us are the wise and wacky people our friends and others turn to for the occasional (frequent) de-goofing. So what would happen if we started using trad music even more intentionally to affect our immediate environments, and the people in them?