"The trouble was that you added so many caveats and restrictions on attributions and what could be done with them that it became something of a poisoned chalice. "
Not the case Bryan - I offered the collection, much of which is made up of material we as a workshop donated to a general pool for the use of singers, and some given by outsiders who thought it worthwhile to attempt to build a national archive independent of the official ones with no restrictions whatever regarding the use made by singers.
The only conditions put on its use outside of that was that material donated from outside be used elsewhere should be used with circumspection and that if necessary, the donors should be consulted first - that, to me, was common courtesy, not "a poisoned chalice" and it is disingenuous of you to suggest it is.
You were given lists of what we have and you know that we acquired material that we were not really entitled to hold, but were given in good faith on the understanding that it was used with circumspection - in your case by club members wishing to increase their knowledge and their repertoires
I felt at the time that such an offer would contribute to the dire condition that the club scene had slid into and I feel that even more strongly now
That offer remains open to any serious, traditional based club and the material has increased somewhat since then
Bryan's club has had their bite of the cherry and spat it out, no second chances, I'm afraid.
"i think the real problem with what JIm calls traditional music is that not anybody can do it"
Certainly not the case Al - at least it wasn't when I was on the club scene
It is a proven fact that , unless you are suffering a physical defect, anybody can sing and, if you are prepared to put in the work, anybody can sing well - the more you work at it, the better singer you become.
Most of the clubs I was involved with worked on the basis of having a team of residents capable of taking an evening, backed up by other singers with less experience and smaller repertoires who could take a less prominent part.
We expected a basic standard, which was that a singer could hold a tune, learn and remember the words without a crib sheet and handle themselves with a degree of confidence so as not to fall apart regularly in front of an audience - that was it really, no high standards, no prima donas, just a basic level of efficiency and commitment, which included an expectation that the singers had given a little thought and preparation to the evening beforehand.
Skills varied widely, but as a general rule, the audience went away having heard an evening of songs competently sung by singers who enjoyed and respected the songs they sang
The only really messy evenings I can remember were the very occasional 'You name it, we sing it' evenings, where audiences were asked to senf up SUBJECTS and the residents would attempt to pluck out a song to match it
One of the most memorable subjects sent up was "psychopathic brickie goes on killing spree when customer refuses to pay bill" - he wanted Lambkin and one of the team obliged
Outside of club evenings, we ran a workshop where those wishing to improve their singing or even start from scratch, were invited to take part - no stars or prima donas there either, just singers prepared to give their time to help others and in doing so, improve their own skills and understanding (That's where the archive I mentioned above came from)
We didn't go in for singarounds - we had a short 'singers from the floor' spot - guests were an occasional luxury - we never relied on them.
Ours were policy clubs - we all had a degree of understanding of what we meant by 'folk' and that formed the foundation of what we did, but it was not a hard-and-fast rule
New songs created in traditional styles were encouraged and regarded as essential if the music was to have a future
None of this is "difficult" Al - it lies well within the grasp of anybody prepared to put in the work - I was actually given a book for our workshop library by the brother of a "non singer" member we worked with who eventually became a singer - I was told "I never believed the bugger would be able to sing"
ANYBODY CAN BECOME A SINGER IF THEY ARE PREPARED TO PUT IN THE TIME, THOUGHT AND EFFORT
Jim Carroll