Or is all folk music itself political?

I know it sounds like a question for the BS section, but I've been forced to think about how what/who I listen to and sing, and it cuts to the heart of how one acquires a repertoire. There've been plenty of discussions about eliminating ethnic slurs, names, dialect from songs, discussion of the rightness/wrongness of songs about violence against women, but I don't recall a discussion of liberal vs conservative values in folk song.

This started when I got blindsided by a very dear friend, a singer of early music, and the person who got me started in making music in church, which led to my making music with other people, singing in public, performing. She got upset by something I said on Facebook - which surprised me, since she isn't on it herself, but reading over her husband's shoulder. Now, I knew she was on the conservative side, but I didn't know that she and her whole family voted for Trump! My jaw dropped and the phone almost did, too. Later she said "I love folk music, but do you know why I NEVER come to your folk music concerts?" (I've been part of groups presenting concerts for the last 35+ years, and the recent ones have been in the church hall of the parish where we sing together) "It's because they're too political, and I don't want to have to walk out of them"

Right away I could think of some recent shows that were overtly political - Tret Fure, "Deeper than Skin" from Greg Greenway and Reggie Harris, Zoe Mulford (that was an amazing series) - and the longer I thought, well we do traditional, too... and then thought of Deb Cowan.. yep, political...and I was just stunned to think that so much of what *I* see as the right attitude doesn't seem to sit well with a conservative mindset. Now I don't know how she'd actually think about individual artists, or songs in their repertoire, because, well, she's not listening to 'em.

This is not a rabid Trumpie - she admits "Trump is a jerk" but does nibble around the fringes of some of the other rightwing thoughts. Is it the nature of folk music to not just "be political" but to be politically liberal? I know there are strains of Old Time & Bluegrass that are more congenial to conservatives, but that's just a sliver of it all. What happens when "the people's music" is not embraced by SOME of the people? I live in a liberal bubble in an otherwise conservative state, but I never considered how people could NOT love the music I love because of it's liberal content - "Not to their taste" was as far as I'd thought it through before.

I know you can't please everybody, but is there a way to engage musically with conservatives without sacrificing your liberal viewpoint? Am I being saddened by an issue that cannot be resolved?

Joanne in Cleveland