I seriously doubt that professional singers running around anywhere and everywhere singing for no pay will increase general interest in folk music any more than what is being done already in most areas of the country. As far as my area is concerned, I have said repeatedly here that the annual Northwest Folklife Festival features both amateur and professional musicians who volunteer their time and talent for this event, and it is free to the public at large. And it draws hundreds of thousands of people. I do not see that it needs to be supplemented by a whole bunch of similar free events in order to enlarge the audience for folk music. What you will wind up with is an army of former professional singers, many of whom already have to hold down "day jobs" so they can keep singing, who can no longer afford to sing at all.

If you give it away, then why should people ever pay to hear someone sing folk songs? And the lack of pay, with the resultant diminution of the number of people able to make a living from their singing (and who thus have the time and energy to devote to developing their talent and skills), will eventually lower the general quality of performance.

Considering the number of people who show up at house concerts, performances at coffeehouses and other clubs, and who buy CDs of singers at many of these events, I don't see that doing a lot of free events will substantially increase attendance—or interest in folk music. Most folk music events around here are well attended, and some are SRO.

Can't do much better than that. So why screw with it?

Oh! I almost forgot! Because Conrad doesn't want to have to pay to go to anything!

Don Firth