Authenticity is a must. Tradition is history, and must be maintained in a consistant and original basis. Period.

As the singer/songwriter 'movement' grows, we are deluged with "holier than thou" in a one up-manship scenario... the result is a temporal hierarchy of political correctness, which carried to it's ultimate extreme, exists in the 'exhalted state' of modern advertising. Riding trends to win the moment... and 'feelgood' is necessary for the top dog... (as well as behind the scenes back stabbing and sabetauge...).

My point is that our love of historical points of veiw are important to the folk/trad tradition, but are at odds with our contemporary views of 'entertanment'... at least for many people in the US...

As for performance, I try to appeal to my audience. It is important to me to be liked. Who here wants to 'BE' Phil Ochs... We love his songs, but his life was terribly hard... I chose my songs subconsciously, and I've been developing a "situation override" that censors song choice, and I will often omit whole parts of songs I like in order to stay in good graces with the 'touchy folk'... Besides, leaving out a lyric can say a lot to the initiated...

Paul Revere had good timing... ttr