I ran a folk concert series that sold out almost every concert for over twenty years. But gradually, my audience retired and moved south, or got too old to want to drive at night. The youngsters who were in their thirties were getting into their fifties by then, and the audience kept getting smaller until I started losing money on every concert. Even sure-fire sell outs of the past were drawing thirty or forty people. I finally had to end the series. It had become a private party for a small circle of friends.

Meanwhile, the next town over, there was a coffee house that was flourishing. The place was packed, and most of the performers were young. And most of the audience was performers. They had an open mike night, and people would sign up for their two songs until the list was getting close to twenty. They were there with friends or family who came to hear them. Many of them left as soon as they did their two songs. In a way, I thought it was humorous... a room packed with young performers all hoping to be discovered by young performers hoping to be discovered. And they called the music folk music, because it wasn't electric. But, you could go a whole night without hearing a song more than three years old. A couple of times I went and did traditional stuff, and I WAS a dinosaur. People were politely dissinterested.

Meanwhile, down at the Center Of The Arts, they ran a folk concert series of contemporary songwriters. I met the many who ran it and mentioned that I had run a concert series of traditional folk music and he said, "I HATE traditional folk music." His choices for performers made that obvious.

Life moves on...

Jerry