Well, I'm gonna disagree with bert and Jerry who think the concept is stupid/stoopid. People work to learn songs. I have very few in my repertoire now and if someone decides to knowingly take one of them over, I AM going to be a bit upset. It would then be a matter of who, on a given day or night, could get around to singing it first, and I don't really think folk singing should be competitive. Also, despite the "everyone is equal" warm fuzzy ideals some think should be enforced it is my JOB to sing "Fire Down Below" at our sessions. It's a niche I've created. I like the fact I'm associated with that song. It might be just a song that anyone can walk in and sing to Jerry or Bert, but it means more than that to me. I'm not talking about performing/recording a song. I'm talking about singing it for fun in an established community of folkies, because the songs I sing are a part of who I am in that community.

Singing a song you know someone else does, in their face, is sort of like being invited to someone's house for a holiday meal and deciding you want to be the one to carve the roast.

I'm not rabid about any of this, but I do believe people should at least try to be polite.