Great Thread; just takes a long time to read, & then, @ my advanced age of 53 (or is it 54?? I don't care.. have long since stopped caring..), I tend to forget some of the notions that came to me as I read...

Anyway: As I shared w/ Tom Paxton several yrs ago, singing on the street & having young kids know all the words to many of my favorites by him amazed me - when I asked where they learned them I was told "at camp." I certainly think that's great.. I wonder - what if I sang "County Down?" Would they sing along?

As for Dysneyfication: I looked for years to find a version of "Coulters' Candy" in plain enough english rather than heavy brogue; when I finally sang it for some kids they said "we know that, Barney sings it." (I think they were more familiar w/the tune than words as I did them; Barney may use entirely different words.) I'm still trying to decide how I feel abt that.. So far, my gut doesn't feel very good abt it.. I'd like to know how other 'Catters view it..

As for venues: As long as the music is good, I'm generally OK.. But I also remember when a 25 yr old guy in Navy boot camp w/us 17-yr-olds caused us to worry that he would have heart trouble trying to keep up w/us. I would not have considered where a grey-beard -like me now- went as some place very interesting.

One thing, though; cigarrette (or, worse yet, cigar) smoke makes me ill. It always did - why I never could smoke. (Thank God!!) As a physician I know the consequences of this drug addiction. I've seen good studies doccumenting the striking addictiveness of nicotine. As a correctional doc, I've had the toughest street-hardened gang-warriors, mafiosi, etc.. tell me they could walk away from cocaine & heroin, but could not give up cigarrettes. I'll be damned if I will any longer quietly choke in public because of somebody's drug addiction.. So, non-smoking venues, both for performing & listening are very important for me. This (somewhat) conflicts w/the notion of sharing a music scene w/the young, as it seems at least some older folks are willing to smoke outside or gave 'em up. (In my experience after their first or second heart attack or stroke -but many, like my brilliant but pathetically addicted EE uncle, don't.)

As for songs vs tunes; I really enjoy some celtic instrumentals, (particularly harp) as I do much latin, latin jazz, baroque classical - and the John Williams' Star Wars Suite (absolutely NOT a trekkie, but I am otherwise a life-long sci-fi fan, something I can share w/ & talk abt w/many young people). In fact I'm rather nuts abt Vivaldi, esp some of the Mandolin pieces (I know, same song many times..)

On the other hand, I can only take very selected opera, and am equally selective abt most blue grass or celtic instrumentals; It isn't just that as a mainly by-ear guitar player, playing the same few chords in the mainly same key at mainly similar pace to accompany the -to me- seemingly endless & near identical jigs & reels bores me (I know, there are IMPORTANT technical differences in the various types of jigs, reels, hornpipes, etc..). It's that they don't grab my emotions the way good ballads do - whether from singer-songwriters ("diarroids??" -great term!!) who don't have (much) diarrhea, (or it's "good shit" [??]) or "traditional," which like "folk," is defined differently by different people.

I have realized that I've always loved some kinds of (mainly folk/traditional) ballads, and, in spite of my above comments, it's the types/styles of ballads & other oral traditions as well as instrumentals (& opera) that I've enormously expanded my appreciation of - as I've become more eclectic -and older.

In central Missouri I've seen really young kids, esp girls, trained in classical violin, performing, & winning contests in, "old time fiddlin'." They are tremendously talented, have the energy -god bless 'em- of youth, and are taking lessons from male fiddlers in their 70' & 80's. It's fantastic...

So there is hope; both for expanding my thick-headed personal horizons, and for the future of folk/traditional music, whatever that is...

Gotta run; Saturday Honey-Do & sorting-out-new-move chores to do; running my computer/fax line on a patch from the room across the hall, etc, etc, etc..

Cheers, BK