"Neither party wins an argument on those lines and loses dignity and respect."
Derrick - if I'd formed my views of what makes a folk song purely on my love for them, you might have a point.
I haven't - I have attempted to back up my conclusions with a great deal of research, the most important being the thirty odd years we spent recording and interviewing traditional singing and documenting what they had to say anout the song I regard as 'folk'
It's all up for grabs in the National Library in London and at least two archives in Dublin.
As far as I'm concerned, by just "agreeing to differ" I would be selling out the people who took the time and effort to pass on their songs and what they thought of, besides making us no different than coin or beer-mat collectors.
What opinions a small grou of folkies hold of what I do and think really doesn't interest me in the long run.
This is a forum on which we should be able to discuss our ideas of folk song, lore and music freely - that fact that some people find the expression of views contrary to their own unacceptable and find it necessary to shout be down and "stick to collecting butterfies" disturbs me far more than anybody's opinion of me.
It indicates a suppression of freedom of speech and thought on what I believe to be a valuable open forum.
Jim Carroll