The Topic of "Coon Songs" is one that should be revisited from time to time. 'Coon Songs' Your Thoughts About Them was started in 2000. Perspective changes overtime. I suspect Performer's Ethics do too. When I sing "Coon Songs" I try to change the more offensive lyrics to some extent. Such "whitewashing" makes good sense from a performers point of view but masks a more important issue.

George Santayana said: 'Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.'

There is truth in Folksong no matter how unpleasant it may be.

"Coon Songs" concern more than racial issues. Songs like WHY BOB YOUR HAIR, GIRLS are just as much in this genre as is "Whar Did You Cum From". One song that is treated as a "coon song is DIXIE'S LAND, attributed to Daniel Emmett. The song is condemned variously as a "blackface minstral" song and a song that reminds us that there was a war fought in which a million Americans died because a disagreement in principal.

Well damn it; Dixie is a good song. It was probably written by Ellen Snowden, born a slave in Maryland. The values and sentiments in the song sure don't come from some yankee in New York City who was inspired one night. Dixie was a favorite song of Abraham Lincoln who claimed it as an American song by right of conquest.

Anyway this should be enough material to start a fresh look at a touchy subject.