"If food and drink dont matter why are musical events held in bars in the first place"

Once again, O-ye-who-is-so-slow-to-grasp-simple-concepts, not all musical events are held in bars. Some are. Many, many are not.

And you do not need a big folk festival with hundreds of singers and thousands of audience members to have a "folk experience." In fact, that's not a "folk experience" at all!

There is no law that prevents YOU from calling some singers and musicians you know (provided you haven't alienated them all) and inviting them to your home for an evening of relaxed and informal singing in your living room.

Now, a good host will usually provide a supply of beer and/or wine (doesn't have to be high-priced vintage stuff, screw-top will do as long as it's halfway palatable). But I suppose that's out for you. If you don't want to shuck out a few bucks for a beer or two for yourself, I doubt you are willing to provide beverages and comestibles for others, heaven forbid! But you could always declare it BYOB. Most of the hoots I've been to were on that basis. After all, the host or hostess was already contributing the use of their house.

Around here, during the late Fifties and though the late Sixties there was a hoot somewhere almost every weekend, although many singers such as Bob and Judy and Alice and Patti and Mike and Jon and Nancy, et al were usually singing someplace, such as in a coffeehouse—and getting paid for it. But that didn't mean that the quality of the singing at the hoots wasn't excellent.

Early on, I learned many songs and was able to hone my performance skills at hoots. In fact, it was at a hoot that Jim Gilkeson, who was responsible for putting together music programs for KCTS-TV (educational channel), heard me sing, then asked me to do the "Ballads and Books" television series in 1959.

Bob Nelson held a big hoot in his back yard a couple of weeks ago. It ran all day long and into the evening. Pot luck barbeque. Great singing! Stewart holds a song fest at his house regularly every couple of weeks. Informal, no admission charge.

Conrad, for a "visionary artist," you are certainly lacking in vision. If you want to enjoy a "folk experience" and hear a lot of music, you don't need to rearrange the entire universe. The one that exists works just fine, thank you, and has been for decades now. All you need to do is shove a sock in your mouth to keep you from alienating the musicians around you by criticizing them, insulting them, calling them "elitist" because some of them earn a buck or two with their singing, and telling everybody they're doing it all wrong. Shut up, sit back, listen, and enjoy.

It's as simple as that.

Don Firth

P. S. "The concept of american puritanical minimal or no drinking is very recent development and has nothing to do with proper folk practice.

"Having only minimal drink is a halmark of the american Yuppie elitist."

That sounds to me like the feeble excuse of someone who is having a bit of an alcohol problem.

"Proper folk practice?" REALLY!! And who made you Lord God of what constitutes "proper folk practice?"

(Pompous ass!!!)