"The difficulty is, Jim, that you seem to be the only person who believes that folk song has been "exorcised out""
Really Howard
You haven't seen the postings which describe being left feeing uncomfortable or unwelcome for singing unaccompanied traditional songs
I was invited above to go and look elsewhere in places that didn't specialise in folk songs if that's what I wanted
The arguments put forward is't that folk song (proper) is thriving but that it is no longer relevant, or that 'folk' has come to mean something else, or it has become undefinable
I walked out of the scene when I spent nights in clubs without hearing a folk song - somebody above describes having exactly the same experience
When I left thousands of others like me did the same, for the same reason
We didn't evapourayte in the open air - many are still around but no longer involved
I know some excellent singers of folk songs who no longer bother because they end up being depressed at the content of the evenings and the abysmal standards
Pat and I were luclky inasmuch as we had a deep enough interest in the songs and their implications to continue working at them
I have never been so active as I am at present
One of my main regrets is that I can no longer hear or sing the traditional songs I love
Another is that the generations following us won;'t be given the opportunity we had to wallow in our wonderful traditional songs
That is why I'm still prepared to make myself the pain in the arse I am to some people - lonfg may I have the energy to be so
Jim