As one who weekly writes about folk, blues, and country records (for roots site Rambles.Net), I appreciate fRoots' informed and literate reviews. I also understand what Vic Smith means. We who review roots albums are often reluctant to trash some poor soul's recording.

Except for the very few, money in folk-and-related music is a scarce commodity, and it's pure love that drives most performers, including the best, the worst, and the mediocre. Playing and recording simply because one can't imagine playing and recording any other kind of music -- which is to say commercially viable pop music -- is such a noble endeavor that harsh (even if warranted) criticism sometimes feels more like sadism than anything morally defensible.

So I try to review, with the rare exception, CDs that I like (most recently Les Copeland's folk-blues disc on Earwig). Maybe that's cowardice, because no reviewer is obliged to render anything but his or her honest opinion. (If you can't stand an honestly expressed review, get out of the kitchen, to mix metaphors.) In my case, if I'm going to be unfriendly, it helps if the performer or band in question has done something that I find openly irritating or offensive. But then that's just me.