Johnny J: I did not intend to imply that anyone who smiles is an idiot. Believe it or not, I smile sometimes, either because something is amusing me, or because I am pleased about something. However, there are a lot of people about who expect entertainers to perform with smiles on their faces, regardless of what it is they are doing, and I find this strange, to say the least. I am a clog dancer, and am mystified at how many people watch our faces, as if they haven't noticed where the sound is coming from. In the first place, primates bare their teeth when making eye contact, as a sign of non-agression. Fear, in other words (no doubt a resident anthropologist or summat will shoot me down in flames for this). But somehow - and I strongly suspect that Hollywood is at the root of this - it has become the expected thing to smile when performing/being photographed/talking etc. It's a showbiz thing. I always thought that folk music was nothing to do with showbiz - the antidote to it, if anything. It should be. Something needs to be.
Getting back to the eye contact thing; am I to take it that, if I were to go blind, people would no longer be able to enjoy my singing?

John Kelly.