If you want to do this correctly, curmudgeon, you have to shout "Dibs!!!!" when you sing the song. :-)

I first ran into this phenomenon (and it's the only time I ever have) at an informal party at a friend's house. Music was going on all over the house and outside, and I happened to be singing Blue Diamond Mines when another singer walked through the door. Name witheld to protect the guilty. She yelled at me, and said, "Why are you ding that song, it's MINE!" "Where did you learn it!" I answered, "I learned it off a Jean Rithcie album and she didn't say anything about the song being yours." Sheesh!!!! But, the woman was REAL nasty about it. I was puzzelled by her reaction, as I'd never run across it. Personally, I think the whole idea is kinda stoopid. I like to hear what other people do with a song that I associate with a particular person. One of my great pleasures is hearing what other musicians have done with songs I've written. Nobody does Silver Queen as well as Roy Harris... certainly not me. And Dave Para and Cathy Barton make all my songs that they sing sound fresh and new. If there's any form of music that shouldn't have "ownership" it's folk music. I realize that some people do definitive versions, and it would be polite and considerate for someone to ask if the "owner" minds if they do the song in their presence. If they're not around, the song is anyone's who wants to sing it, as far as I'm concerned.

There's a lot of funny stuff that goes on in folk music. Some singers get neurotic that they'll do the same song more then once for an audience (not in the same night, but on a return booking.) If that's the way everyone thought, there wouldn't be any folk music. Some musicians do think that they own a song (which I find weird.) I don't "own" any songs, and don't ever want to. I thought that this was all supposed to be about sharing, and passing songs on.

Dave Van Ronk did a great version of Whoa Back Buck. So did Lonnie Donnegan. Who owned it? (Maybe Leadbelly who first recorded it?" I sing it too, and certainly was never intimidated that others had already done great versions. Nobody ever did me. And I've never done anyone else. All this sounds too ingrown for my tastes.

Just my opinion.

Jerry