Mudcatter musicmic writes for Tune-up, a membership publication of the Philadelphia Folksong Society. The PFS has graciously given permission to run his reviews here.

Mike's comments about his reviews:

Tune-Up is not on our website; the publication is for the members as a privilege of membership. I do forward reviews to the artists as a courtesy.

Before you send me your CD, you might like to know my preferences and prejudices. I favor traditional music. I am a folksinger, by profession. I am, therefore, sympathetic to folksingers of all cultures. I do not believe that a folksong is any ditty composed by a poet whose amplifier is on the fritz. If you write songs that bare your soul and "tell it like it is," you can submit, but the best I'll do for you is pass it on to others with more tolerance.

This is not to say that I don't recommend new material. If the songs are within the tradition, I will pay more attention.

In any case, I do not pan. I only praise and recommend. If I don't like what I hear, my lips are sealed like my juvenile record. If I don't like a CD, I don't, automatically, shelve it. I pass it on to a student to get another opinion. If the student likes it, I usually, print the more favorable review, identifying the "guest" critic. My mission is to encourage and publicize, never to pan or embarrass.

If you need more information, you can email me at musicmic@rcn.com or pfs@pfs.org

Mike

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More from Mike HERE. Especially see his thoughtful comments about recording quality.

ARTISTS PLEASE NOTE: If you want me to post future Mike's reviews, please help me out by making sure that I have all the same information you send Mike:

Your Mudcat name and your name as it appears on the CD,

URL to a website if available, artist profile or link to it if it is here at Mudcat,

URL to any thread posts about the CD's release;

Location of MP3's if any,

Purchasing information (and please let me know if it is a through a link that benefits Mudcat).

If you plan on giving Mudcat a cut of any Mudcat purchases please let me know how you would like that worded.

If you are featuring the item in the auction please let me know so that, if possible, the review post and the auction post can be linked to one another.

THANKS! Oh and if you e-mail me, put the word MUDCAT in the subject line or the spam filter will decline your message! PM me if I do not reply!

~Susan

motormice@hotmail.com

Subject line: Mudcat CD Reviews