There were interesting workshop/performances at Home County Folk Festival yesterday (London Ontario Canada) which featured alot of jazz and blues. Players/singers included Mose Scarlet, Curly Boy Stubbs, Ken Whiteley, Jackie Washington, Georgette Fry, and others (sorry, I'm doing this from memory).

Some jazz and blues standards played with the same instrumentation as folkies and bluegrassers would use, and it works very well. I guess good music is good music regardless of instrumentation. Gotta say that Whiteley's mandolin playing was spot on.

The drift of tunes from genre to genre can be quite revealing. All music is derivative, most is more closely related than the industry would have us believe, and the folk process works equally well in non-"folk" musics.

Anyway, to me at least, it's not so much how music is played but how it's heard. Lots of folk (and folkies) can play with great ability in other styles, but tend to hear in their preferred style. There's lots of fun to be had when the styles are stretched.

Think I'll listen to something different today.

Peace, Mooh.