Yes, I like the music or I don't. And I like Holly Near. A lot. Whatever her sexuality is or isn't. At my age, sexuality is more of a pleasant memory than a preferance or a political issue.

But folk music -- which in the strict sense is, if not "prehistoric," then transhistoric -- is universal and foundational to what we are as human beings.

I know a lot of people on this forum don't like boundaries and restrictions, but somewhere there needs to be a line drawn between music based on a culture and music (however good and fulfilling) based on composers, recording artists, tours and contracts.

We live in a declining age. All you "ban the multinational corporations" folks on this site should appreciate that.

Like John Lennon once said about rock n roll (my papraphrase): It's a chair -- not a fancy chair, not an art chair, not a leather chair, and not a chair you go to a museum (or or concert hall) to see and admire. It's the first chair. You can sit on that music.

Or, in another of my awkward paraphrases, Stephen Benet once said something like, "The old world disappeared when the last mountain girl got a radio."

Yes, all this putting of artists into boxes is distracting and somewhat dangerous. But I think we need to be careful and respectful of some of the general boundaries -- and most especially the insidious effects of pop culture on old tunes.

I am even so bold to think that Ms. Near, for whom I have tremendous respect, might agree.

Tony