Give it a rest, glueman.

Interesting questions, John. I'm going to be busy for the rest of the evening, but I'd like to get back to examining that some.

In the meantime, here's a little rant I just had:

It strikes me that things have gone a bit nutso when a singer of traditional American songs, the son of two prominent American folk song collectors, and who has impeccable credentials of his own, contacts a local folklore society to inquire if they would be interested in sponsoring him in a concert, and they turn him down based on the fact that he is not a singer-songwriter. He doesn't write the songs himself.

What's wrong with that picture?

There are some really excellent songs being written by singer-songwriters. But, unfortunately, there is also a great deal of really miserable stuff. And interestingly enough, it is usually the poorer songwriters who are the ones who insist on calling their songs "folk songs." And it's pretty obvious that they do so in an attempt to stamp their songs with a distinction and respectability that they have not earned.

As I believe I said somewhere above, this is an example of Gresham's Law as it applies to things other than money

Considering some of the things that are being labeled "folk songs" these days, I sometimes feel motivated to try to distance myself from the label "folk singer" or even "singer of folk songs." It seems that the way the word "folk" has been used and abused within recent years, associating myself with the word "folk" tends to create a false impression of the kind of songs I sing.

(How's that for "primadonna," SS?)

Don Firth