"It is his privilege to see the tradition in the way that he does."
It is everybody's privelege to see the tradition as they do.
It is not everybody's right to distort and misrepresent the views of others, not without challenge anyway.
Those who do so are guilty of exactly what they accuse others of doing.
"thinking our thoughts about the nature of folkmusic is our privilege"
And sharing those thoughts with others is a pleasure when it is done honestly and sincerely.
"they are excluding people, that is the problem."
Anybody who attempts to present a specific music in a thought-out specific way excludes somebody - club nights, sessions, concerts of jazz, hip-hop - heavy metal - blues - classical.... are all events organised by people who wish to present music in the manner they feel best suits it - they are not juke boxes where you stick your coin in the slot and get whatever music you choose performed in a way you choose - they are entitled to do it their way.
You don't like the way they do it, don't go.
You want something different, go and find it in a club that caters to your tastes.
Last night we had a bunch of wonderful fiddlers playing traditional music in a traditional manner to a capacity audience with standing room only and a knot of people straining to listen from outside the door - half the players were in their teens or early twenties.
The last folk club I went to in London, I sat with around a dozen others, in a freezing cold pub room, with the sound of piped music drifting up from the bar, listening to somebody stumbling her way though Danny Boy from a crib-sheet and still having to be prompted by a member of the audience.
Eeny-meeny-miny-mo.
Jim Carroll