Betting the ranch, eh? As long as he's not buying the farm then I guess things is cool.

I know hundreds of musicians for whom recording is an integral part of the process of making music. This has been the case for the past 35 years in the realms of electronica & experimental musics, where the Concrète Ethos is central to the Caper. In folk things is a little different, where performance remains the ideal & recordings are secondary to that. We seldom of hear of the reclusive folk singer who is only heard via his / her Soundcloud page & limited edition CD-R releases. Folk Concrète? We live in hope.

As a reviewer myself my parameters of what is acceptable in terms of sound & product are set pretty wide. The only thing that irks me is when Folkies are eager to sell you their CD which is, in fact, a CD-R. Don't get me wrong, I love CD-Rs & they've been an essential part of the music scene this past 15 years or so, but they're not CDs. It was better in the old days when the CD-R had that lovely Toilet Duck Blue colour to them.

Yeah things is confusing, but things is just the way they are. Once again I fear the tendancy here is towards over prescription when it comes to what ought to be as oppose to what is. What is is always better, I find. Whatever works for you is always best. Grab your Zoom H2s and go find yourselves a nice resonant space - be it country church or city underpass. Delight in the Joy of Sound and the Sound of Joy.

Whatever, it's always the EARS that hear it. Maybe it's time certain reviewers got the cotton buds out and faced basic realities?

Here's Kevin Conneff singing The Green Fields of America in Frank Zappa's concrete echo chamber. The recording was a favourite of Zappa's and was played at his funeral.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BD89a9xkMGk