Dan,

You are correct! It used to bother me---until I realized it was only depressing me--so I let it go and simply figure that what will be will be---just a part of the cycles. My answer for it, professionally (and when my health dictated that I tour less), was to link up with a steamboat on the Mississippi where I could play music & tell jokes/lies for almost a decade while I watched the music I cared about lose it's audience. Now I see, with much less anxiety, that the law is whatever the Supreme Court says it is (USA) at any given moment (to metaphorically view this). And I joyously participate in the sorrows o' the world (as Joe Campbell pointed out the Buddhists try to do).

And I gave my main lap dulcimer to a 12 year old kid who definitely was very interested. Any time a youngster shows real interest (or even before) I'll show 'em what I can. I kept my fees very low for shows I did in the schools of the 8 counties in and around Chicago for 22 years for this very reason. This allowed the inner city students (along with the more affluent suburban kids)to be, at least, exposed to this music they'd never hear otherwise.

The fellow I gave my dulcimer to just came over to show me the electric guitar he bought. That's O.K.! He'll take the dulcimer off the wall and start playing it 20 years from now, and then he'll posess the wisdom of age that is so often needed to enjoy our music best. Where I came to the music first out of youthful rebellion, he'll come to it out of intellectual and spiritual need born of a nostalgia for the old bearded guy in his past who took him aside and gave him a gift of the music.

Art

Art