Well, as always, it's different strokes....

Have to admit I'd without doubt be in the group that wants to wallow in Shallow Brown--focusing on vocal harmonies--and forgetting about time. Sounds great.

But I wouldn't be likely to frequent a singaround where the norm was epic ballads--I wouldn't think you'd get many people who could sing them from memory--and if they sing from a sheet I'm likely out of there. So the sessions and parties I go to have, by definition, few long ballads--and virtually everything memorized.

But sea chanteys--the longer the better--I'm just captivated.

"Old time music"--just doesn't do it for me--I can get my fill of the same tune real fast--and go looking for chanteys, C & W, doo-wop etc. Which is too bad, since old-time songs are just great--how could it be otherwise with Charlie Poole, Uncle Dave Macon etc? Why don't old-time sessions do more of their songs--and fewer instrumentals?

Though I'll have to admit the issue of time usually doesn't enter into my calculations--mostly the venues I go to are music parties--so they can stretch out quite a while--they're not singarounds. The official local singaround seems to have been taken over, I believe, by the Blue Book of Death--it doesn't take many of those to ruin a sing. So official Open Sings have had to be replaced by individually sponsored parties--closed sings, as it were,--where the Blue Book is not seen.