Hi Julie,

I think you may be falling into a trap set for all of us by the cultures we grew up in. Folk music at its best isn't something performed at passive listeners by trained musicians. It's the music that people make in the course of our daily lives: our songs of worship, cake baking, making love, play, work, rocking children to sleep, thinking politically, etc. But, we've all learned the 'active performer vs. passive audience' model instead of a participatory one.

There, having gotten that off my chest, I feel much better now but I haven't answered your question.

The 'music biz' works hard to provide us all with familiar sound devoid of content and trains us to value sound above content. BUT, there are outposts of sanity in the industry.

If you can climb out of the 'similar sound/similar outlook' box, you'll start hearing and maybe making better music.

Forgive me, Julie, for the sermon. Let us pray...