"Don't burn 'em, Jim. I'll take them off your hands."
Why Raymond - they're older in style than even Len Graham and Kevin and Ellen Mitchell - what will you do with them; make plant pots?
What's your point - that folk music has a shelf-life and has to be replaced every so often by something that demonstrably has a far shorter shelf-life than the real thing, (as has been proved with the 'electric-soup' and the mini-choirs experimenters).
Sean, Jim Moray.... whoever have all the right in the world to do what they wish with traditional song, but if they move away from the elements that has made it what it is, it becomes something else - would you argue that Butterworth's 'Banks of Green Willow' is still folk music when played by the London Phil, or is it music that has been newly created using a traditional song?
What's your point?
Giving music, theatre, literature.... a sell-by date is giving it a death sentence.
I don't know how many people will come to The West Clare Singing Festival - but I do know that next year this town will be holding its annual 40th Willie Clancy Summer School, where people from all over the world will fill the town to listen to, play, sing and learn about traditional song and music - the town has become quite wealthy on it and nationally traditional music (played and sung traditionally) is a major feature of Ireland's tourist industry.
Last night I watches a TV programme (1 of around a dozen) where a sean nos (old style) singer sang and discussed her songs - I can listen to or watch such programmes most nights of the week on national and local TV and radio.
There are sessions in this one street town 4/5 nights a week, depending on the mood and the commitments of the musicians and singers. We have 70 or 80 school age and upward young people playing the music traditionally, some to an extremely high standard - some are now teaching the music, which is guaranteed to survive for at least another generation.
A couple of years ago we applied for a 10k grant for having our "behind the times" collection of songs and music transcribed textually and musically - we were told that we had underestimated our application (we got what we asked for btw).
How did we manage to go so wrong????
MacColl once said that the greatest threat to folk music was that it should fall into the hands of people who neither like nor understand it - I can see what he means?
Jim Carroll