"...anti-diddley grouch."? Hmm, if the shoe fits, I guess I'd better wear it.

Last summer I went to a party where the hosts purposely separated the tunes people from the singing people. And they had to keep (politely) pulling people out of the singing session and sending them over to the tunes session.

When I say tunes people I mean those people who think the voice is only used to order another beer and subvocalize instructions to the other people playing tunes; I mean the people who look offended when you dare to raise your voice in song; I mean those who work very hard to learn music without words and seem to look down on those who learn music with words.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy tunes. Unfortunately they tend to spill over one after another leaving no room for the singers. A good tunes session is one where the music never stops. My first time at Mystic I was amazed to see two people, who professed to each other that it had been six months since their last meeting, sit down pull out instruments and play tunes non-stop for two hours. They were quickly joined by a crowd of others. That was also my first Barry Finn experience as he was playing bodhran in that session.

And, no Jaque, I do not include accompanied song in the tunes list. Bring your banjo and flutes and guitar and whatever else you want. I will not be offended. (Wouldn't make any difference if I was anyway.) I'm planning to accompany myself one of these days.