Thanks M. Ted for 'getting' my point and helping clarifying it.

And thanks, Dick for your usual trick of making most of my point in a couple of lines.

greg..I may find that band, and I 'may' enjoy them...just as I sometimes enjoy the Berrymans....just beware of how I classify them. In the same way, Ron, I might GO to a festival where the Berrymans were included - I just wouldn't put them in one that *I* organized under the banner of 'folk/trad'.


Ron...re:" When you say "folk" needs rescue - do you sincerely think that it is being ignored because no one can define it to your satisfaction? "

Well, you didn't ask the question right... I do indeed think that much of certain music is 'being ignored', not exactly because it is not defined to my liking, but because other stuff has been smuggled in under its name. If all one found at Trader Joe's was the 'new' Mexican food, how would most people even compare it with traditional stuff? In the Wash DC area, I have struggled for years to find 'trad' Mexican cooking ...even when they know HOW...because they are convinced that the locals won't like it 'that hot' or with chunks of potatoes & peas. If kids MUST find their way to occasional FSGW concerts or concerts to hear 'the old stuff', how will they know if they like it? You, Ron, go to Mystic.....what if groups like The Pyrates Royale, as much fun as they are, were all that was heard there?

Now, I will go read Don Firth's screed...if I have time. I am off to our monthly 'open' sing tonight (topic: "inland waterways" where I will sing one fairly 'trad' song ("Brazos River") and one which is hard to classify ("Silver Bell"). And if there is a 3rd round, a traditional syrupy gospel ditty "Row Us Over the Tide".
During the evening I will no doubt hear...& tolerate... a few songs which will probably not 'fit' my narrow concept of folk, but since this has for 40 years been an 'open' sing, I KNOW the usual mix and am either surprised or bothered....(well...sometimes I have to bite my tongue....*grin*)

Once more... I