Backwoodsman, your local lad Connolly is a national treasure, and should be treated as such.

I am a long time devotee of his songs and I agree that he has written many better than the one for which he is best known, and I would like to point out to those who denigrate singer/songwriters that he is one of those they belittle with their snide, and largely uninformed comment.

Points to ponder:-

Most of the music we know and love has been created by singer/ songwriters. Is there any traditionalist out there so dumb as to believe that the tradition sprang from commercial composers writing for other singers?

I thought not!

It is not the tradition that has alienated audiences, it is the hidebound fundamentalist who can see no merit in any music created after 1900.

Having said that, I do not believe that the folk club scene is collapsing. It is evolving, AND SO IT SHOULD, despite those who would embalm it and fix it in the past.

Don T.