My earlier comment ("feh") notwithstanding, it's not the Mudcat audience that was the target for that PBS clambake.

In the same way that the fans of Ornette Coleman and the fans of Kenny G both consider themselves fans of "Jazz" but have little in common, those of us who have been part of the folk revival over the last 40 years (see the last 50 posts in this topic) have a very different idea of "folk music" from those who still love the Kingston Trio/Limelighters/Brothers Four. And neither group shares their taste with the people who moved toward folk-rock in the mid-sixties.

But much as we might dislike the idea, the commercial folk-scare fans have just as much right to see their favorites as we do. And I suspect that there's more opportunity for us to see and hear what we call folk musc--at festivals, on college and public radio, and at folk clubs--than there is for the fans of the New Christy Minstrels.

So let those people enjoy themselves. It's not hurting us--in fact, if they play the occasional song written by a "real" folk singer-songwriter like a Tom Paxton or a Utah Philips, they're subsidizing us.

We don't own the exclusive right to the words "Folk Music". And we're not the ones that the PBS nostalgia factory was trying to reach with this particular program.