Hi, Jeri: We may be mixing apples and elephants here. I do think the whole concept of "owning" a song that is in the public domain is at a minimum self-contradictory. It seems like what people are getting in to is protecting one's "turf" in a local setting, whether it's a pub, a family gathering, a folk club or a small festival. If I was at a gathering and knew that you had a personal identification with a particular song, I wouldn't sing it, out of sensitivity to you. As far as I'm concerned, that doesn't mean that you "own" the song. Far from it. It just means in a small, localized group of singers, you happen to love that song and do a fine job on it. (I'd have to add that I know singers who feel that they "own" a song, who do a lousy job on it but are too lazy to ever expand their repertoire and keep singing the same half a dozen songs.) I guess you could call it pride of local ownership. If I went two towns over, I might do the song if it meant something to me. Maybe someone else would feel that they "own" the song in that town. Perhaps we could have an international registry of who owns each song, and the geographic area in which they own it. There might be disputes over who is the true owner, if more than one person claims it, in which case we'd have to set up a national tribunal to determine ownership. Perhaps when that person dies, they could will their ownership to a family member or friend, and such a decision could be recorded in the international Song Deed Directory.:-)

We're talking two different things here, Jeri, and I think it's the word "own" that is the problem. One issue is respecting someone else's feelings about a particular song when you are singing in their presence. That, I wholeheartedly agree with. The other is presuming proprietary "ownership" of a song that is in the public domain. I do think that's "stoopid." I think that there should be the freedom for anyone to sing any song that they feel in their hearts. If someone knows they are in the presence of another person who also loves to do that song, then I think there should be a friendly conversation about who does it. As simple as that. The other extreme is the woman who started yelling at me because I dared to do a song that she "owned", even though I had never met the woman before, and the song was written and recorded by Jean Ritchie.

I think it boils down to treating people with respect and sensitivity, not a question of "ownership."

The Other Jerry