When my first CD came out, Sing Out! printed a nice review from Tom Druckenmiller . He began by saying, "While listening to Dan Schatz I was reminded of the many folk song interpreters I listened to as I was just starting to enjoy traditional music. Most of us didn't start off listening to source material or field recordings as we began our individual journeys, we let the interpreters do the heavy lifting and we followed their direction."

FAME has just posted a nice review of my new album, The Song and the Sigh. Mark Tucker writes: "Now, he's stepped back to concentrate on his own work in a marvelous CD/book combination that features not only his tunes but also writings and commentary. The Song and the Sigh is a time machine back to the American and European folk wave of the 60s and 70s, when the rime of much older days still hung nicely on the movement."

I'm extremely gratified to be getting such kind reviews, but it makes me wonder. As a younger person in folk music (and isn't it sad that 38 constitutes younger in folk music?) I am often compared with the folk music styles of 40 years ago. Ironically, I often have not listened very much to the musicians I am being compared to - though I confess to a touch of pride at comparisons with Pete Seeger and Ralph McTell, as in the most recent one. And I do listen to them.

But by and large, the era of music with which I am most often compared is one that I wasn't around for. What I do listen to is a lot of the same traditional music that influenced those giants of the 60s, and a lot of the lesser known musicians who I grew up around in the folk music community of the DC area and Eastern seaboard. Yes, Pete Seeger. Like some of those musicians of the 60s, I've kept very strong roots in traditional music - I can't help it; it's in my bones. And like some of those musicians, I write some songs, and sing songs written by others, along with the strictly traditional material. (The new CD actually has no traditional material, but still seems to evoke tradition, if reviews are to be believed.) Like some of those musicians, I try to sing songs that matter - songs about real working people, or about justice, or about the inner life. Along with songs that are simply fun.

The thing is, I am not a 60s or 70s singer, and I'm not trying to be one. I'm simply trying to be myself, straddling these two worlds of traditional and contemporary folk music in a time when the those worlds are very much divided from each other. Does this make me a throwback to an earlier era, a musician out of time? Is there a place for new voices and musicians to make this kind of music and be heard? Are there new audiences for music that is firmly and lovingly rooted in, but not bound by, tradition?

What do you think?

Dan