Looks to me (especially from the crowds--in the hundreds of thousands--who show up at the Northwest Folklife Festivals) that interest in folk music is not only alive and well, it's verging on the downright fat and sassy. Same thing with concerts and such put on by both the Seattle Folklore Society and the Pacific Northwest Folklore Society, AND the Victory Music organization in Tacoma, south of here. All well attended. Unlike the Folklife Festival, which is free to the public and for which the singers sing for no pay, there IS a charge for these concerts, AND the singers DO get paid.

In any case, nobody, not the singers and not the concert promoters, are getting rich from folk music.

Maybe Conrad lives in an area of unusual drought. In any case, it looks like he's just going to have to get used to doing without.

Suck it up, Conrad!

Don Firth