I have to continue to maintain that performance should be always a secondary concern and that maintenance of the songs and the tradition is the priority.

If we only reward those who sing perfectly then we discourage others who are not so good.

The result of this is fewer having the songs and singing them.

We just get a large mass of consumers- audience. Those at a festival for entertainment will not maintain or extend the tradition.

Having gone to school in Knoxville Tennessee in the 70s I was fortunate to have access to many older singers. They had many ancient songs and people did not mind in the least that their performance might not have been the best.

The important part is that we support as many people who take the time to care for the songs in an active way as an integral part of their existence.

As for singer songwriters yes. This is a problem if one considers the central concern of folk music the preservation and maintenence of the old material as best as we can manage and in as much an active way as we can manage.

I see those who do exclusively all their own material as a threat to the central purpose. There is nothing wrong with new material or gentle adaptation of the old. The key here is to make sure that it does not dominate the performance of someone who takes the title "folk".

These people suck down grant funding and take publicly funded venue spots simply because they do "folk like" things.

When we do not remember that folk music has a heritage that must be cared for we fail. We can only manage the most extensive active maintenance of the folk tradition if it is open to the largest number of people. Makes perfect sense.

In this thread so far we have seen often how quality has been used to keep out people, how economic segregation has been justified and how professional musicians are elevated as elites.

The point is that we can all live together but that the pie has to be cut a bit differently. While singers and writers are happy with the way things are they are not necessarily correct or supporting the best philosophy for the extension of folk music and the guardianship of its treasures.

Conrad