"Most audiences have the attention span of a goldfish, even in folkclubs. Singarounds are different."
Is this true or is it a case of ""I" find them boring because "I" have the attention span of a goldfish". Does Gurney have the right to decide that everybody around him/her has a short attention span. Or is it that he/she just doesn't like ballads - or maybe has only heard bad singing of them - bad singing can be boring whether the songs are long or short, ballads or not.
If a snigger snogwriter bores me to tears with his serenades to the fluff in his navel (as they often do) and I told him to stop singing them because they are boring, would he be jusitified in accusing me of being a member of 'The Folk Police'?
Ballads are, as far as I'm concerned, the high watermark of the folk-song tradition - if you don't like them I can see no reason why you can claim to like folk-song. I've heard folk songs that are longer than most ballads - Father Tom O'Neill, True Lover's Discussion, Van Dieman's Land (some versions) many of the Irish language Sean Nós songs (in a language I don't understand), yet I can listen to them without getting bored.
I sat down last night and watched an hour and a half play (part 2 tonight, another hour-and-a-half - can't wait); some time today I will read a few of chapters of a book for about an hour. I might go to the cinema tomorrow - another two hours of sitting and concentrating. Why can I do these things without becoming bored - or is 'attention span' just confined to ballads.
Personally, if somebody included me as a member of a folk club audience of having the attention span of a goldfish, I'd be pretty pissed off.
Jim Carroll