Hi Shambles,

I'm glad you started this one. You have probably been referring to some of my opinions.

I am a singer/songwriter and I belong to a very good club in our area, The Philadelphia Area Songwriters Alliance. I attend functions when I can and always listen carefully to my colleages and try to give positive feedback. I have noticed that there is ALWAYS something good about any song.

What I complain about is, that other club I belong to. Their name suggests that they are a Folksong club. So I go along to a concert expecting to hear FOLK music. Most of the singers they hire are singer/songwriters. Very few of them sing anything that is remotely like folk music. I really resent spending an evening listening to a singer churning out very forgettable songs that are not folk when I have come there for folk music.

I don't mind someone slipping in a song now and then, that they have written themselves, I do it myself, here. Barbara will confirm that I can be shameless about it at times. You guys are a very discerning crowd, having been weaned on songs that have stood the test of time. So, I keep very quiet about most of the junk that I have written, I don't want people listening to MY diary.
However, most of the stuff here is folk or blues with a little country thrown in, that's what we come here for. I am not sure that we want this to turn into a singer/songwriter site. I see Mudcat as a folk/blues site where an occasional home brewed song is welcome.

Bert.