"But you mentioned quality as being important."

Yes, it is, Conrad. VERY important, for reasons I have already stated. AND as I have already said several times, poor voices and songs badly sung usually drive away people who might otherwise develop an interest in folk music (I have a specific example of someone who developed an interest in folk music by listening to a couple of reasonably compentent singers, which I will add below).

There are a couple of factors which go into making a "good" singer or "quality" singer: an outstanding voice helps, but it is not necessary, as long as the voice doesn't grate on people's nerves. Being able to sing on pitch and with relatively clear diction is essential.

Many people with "ordinary" voices can do this quite well.

What IS essential, and the most important factor in being a good, quality singer, is not so much that the singer have a beautiful voice, but that the singer understand the song and convey his or her understanding of that song to others.

And the vast majority of people CAN DO this, provided they take the time to learn about the background of the song (especially important in folk songs and ballads), and project that to listeners.

"In the grand scheme of things the songs are important- you do have to know them but the singing quality is not important."

I have just addressed that. But singing quality IS important in that the quality must be at least adequate. Again, on pitch, clearly enunciated, and with understanding of the song.

"Many great singers only sing a few songs. Many ordinary singers can sing thousands."

Not true within my experience. Most "great" singers are great because they have worked with the songs for a long time, have learned many songs, and there is a lot of "carry-over" from one song to another.

How many songs do you think Pete Seeger knows? Joan Baez? Frank Hamilton? I don't know of very many "ordinary" singers who know "thousands" of songs. My friend Bob Nelson? He knows many hundreds of songs. HE probably doesn't know how many. He just keeps on learning them. As do I, and the really interested and dedicated singers that I know—and know of.

And this bit of nonsense:   " Oft times musicians are given free food and drink so they are often not aware of how ripped off their audiences are being."

Although I didn't make a point of it, I always knew how much was being charged for food and drink in the places I sang. All I had to do was look at a menu. And back in the days when a cup of coffee in most restaurants cost a dime (maybe twenty-five cents in really upscale eateries), the fact that The Place Next Door charged 75é for a two-cup carafe of regular coffee (specialty coffees like Turkish, Swedish blend, of coffee-chocolate combinations might run to $1.50), that didn't keep people away. The place was packed every night. As were most of the other coffeehouses in this area.

I rarely sang in places that served beer or other alcoholic beverages. Not that I'm any kind of "temperance" nerd. I enjoy a drink now and then myself. But I found the audiences in non-alcoholic venues far more attentive and appreciative.

Even though the boozers paid a lot better than the coffeehouses!

If things are as bad as you say they are, Conrad, that is strictly a local phenomenon and doesn't apply to most of the rest of the country. Or world.

Now. As to the matter of spreading interest in folk music:

Bob Nelson's voice is not in the same league as, say, Dmitri Hvorostovsky's, but it is quite pleasant and listenable. And his diction is impeccable. Something he has always been quite careful about.

I am no Ezio Pinza in terms of voice quality, but I've been told I have a pretty good singing voice, even though I have a somewhat limited upper register, with a tendency to squeak on high notes if I'm not careful with my breath support. I can sing Gordon Bok's songs in the same keys that he sings them in.

In October of 2007, Bob and I did a concert together on Sunday afternoon at Central Lutheran Church on Capitol Hill in Seattle, alternating solos and doing occasional duets. The following is a review written by a young man who, although his grandfather was a very good local singer of folk songs, hadn't really paid much attention to folk music before. He writes

The light from the stained glass windows washed the little church with an autumn glow as we filed into the pews, excited murmurs filling the space where we waited for the music. As Bob Nelson and Don Firth were being introduced, I felt like I was looking in on a closely knit family joining in reunion: the audience, the announcer, the performers- there was an intimacy that truly surprised me. As they began, a complete hush fell over the crowd, allowing their voices and the sounds of their guitars to fill every corner of the room.

Watching the two perform, separately or in unison, one feels that behind their good-humored faces hides the history of hundreds of lives. Simple and real and earnest, they are like actors of short stories, giving us a small slice of another era through which we can enjoy a full spectrum of feeling and experience that would otherwise be entirely lost in the sands of time. Though reading a history book can give you times and places of events and an idea of what happened, an essential grain of humanity is lost in transition from the lives of history to the text. Bob played a few songs of cheek and vigor that had me envious of such a vital, simple time, wishing I could travel back and sit around a campfire with the protagonist, or be told secondhand of the extortion of a father by his daughter and her beloved.

One song struck me in its beauty of form and execution: a simple, sad Scottish ballad of longing sung by Don without accompaniment. His great voice rose and rumbled up in mourning to haunt the rafters of that fragile church with the memory of a love now centuries dead; the beauty of the ballad and of his steady voice struck me with a kind of pure sadness that is all but impossible to find in modern music- for a moment I felt as if I, too, were wandering the hills and valleys of Scotland singing a hopeless plea for companionship.

I had always liked folk music, but never really pursued it- after seeing Bob Nelson and Don Firth perform, I have no choice but to seek it out whenever possible.
                                                                                                             —Jordan Myers

(WOW! Jordan Myers can write my reviews any time he wants to!!)

So you see, Conrad, laying down a good performance, especially if you know your material and enjoy singing the songs yourself—and without blatantly trying to "educate" your audiences, but just briefly putting the songs in context—can go a long way toward spreading interest in folk music. In fact, I would go so far as to say that it's the best way. As is stated quite plainly in Jordan Myers' last paragraph above.

So, Conrad, just stuff your goofy ideas and let those who've been at it for decades and know what they're doing just get on with it.

Don Firth