". . . but they are so into the money making greed. . . ."

If a singer of folk songs is into "money making greed," he or she is certainly barking up the wrong tree. There are certainly more lucrative fields of music than folk music.

Case in point:   Early Music is really big in my area right now, as is demonstrated by the various groups that have been popping up around the country within recent years, such as The Baltimore Consort. They are much in demand by big paying audiences all over the country. Also, they have a huge stack of CDs out on the market. (They're from your area, Conrad; ever heard them? Or heard of them? They're very good).

Or The Renaissance Singers, whose home base is in my area, Seattle.

Or Elizabeth C. D. Brown, who recently graduated from the U. of W. School of Music and is now doing concerts, has several CDs out, and who is teaching lute and guitar at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, 30 miles south of Seattle. She plays regular classical guitar, lute, and Baroque guitar.

I already play several lute pieces on the classic guitar, and all I need do is retire my guitar and pick up a lute or cittern and practice a bit. The playing techniques are essentially the same. And when I was at the U. of W., I sang with the University Singers and the University Madrigal group, so all I need to do is brush up on my French a bit, and I'm ready to go with all kinds of early French troubadour songs, a few Elizabethan songs (Dowland and such—I have a couple of books of such songs), and spice up my concerts and recitals with some songs from Shakespeare's plays (such as "Feste's Song" at the end of Twelfth Night). I have a book full of those, also. I already sing a few of them. And all I need to do is accompany them on the lute rather than on the guitar, and that will give me the image!

(Hey!! That's not a bad idea! I'm gonna think about that!!)

AND—for that matter, I could throw in a lot of folk songs as well.

You know? A whole lot of folk songs and ballads are "folk processed" descendants of the old troubadour and minstrel songs from pre-Renaissance times. I could build some really excellent programs with this!! Not only build prestige as a singer who really knows his material, but I could have a foot in both camps and really make a bundle while I'm at it!

I smell still another educational television series!!

By the way, Conrad, pull your head out of where the sun doesn't shine and take a good look around. The world is not the way you seem to think it is.

Don Firth

P. S.   And here's somthing you might think about:   if the better singers are not turning up at your events, did it ever occur to you that you, haranguing them about how they're doing it all wrong and trying to tell them how they should be doing it, might be the reason they're not showing up?