". . . Waltzing Matilda as a waltz." Yeah, I hear you, Frank. My admiration for Richard Dyer-Bennet is not totally without bounds. His musicianship was next to impeccable, but there are certain songs that he recorded that, in my opinion at least, his judgment could be considered a bit questionable.

I think he was at his best on European songs and doing ballads as a lute-singer or court minstrel might have done them (conjures up a vivid image). He was in top form with songs like The Joys of Love (Plaisir d'amour), Oft in the Stilly Night, and So We'll Go No More a-Roving (all on Dyer-Bennet Records #1). But on some of what Walt Robertson called "the more hairy-chested songs," he leaves a bit to be desired. There are certain songs that he recorded that, if I had his voice, I wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole. His renditions of John Henry and Drill, Ye Tarriers are technically very good, but to my ear, they come out a little pale. Questionable choice of repertoire. And occasionally he tries to "get cute" with a song, such as lapsing into 3/4 on the chorus of Waltzing Matilda. No, Dick. No, no, no!!

Formal training is one thing. Taste is another.

Russ, I know what you mean. "Folk music" has become a sort of non-term. Not much real communication there. "Folk music" is what you find in the folk music bin at the record store. Whenever asked what kind of music I do, if I say "folk music," people tended to say, "Oh! You mean, like Peter, Paul, and Mary?" or something like that, and then I'm in for a long, drawn-out discussion, trying to explain that Peter, Paul, and Mary were not the be-all and end-all of folk music. Nor do I wish to be pigeon-holed as an old Sixties hippie. So I usually give a sort of weasel answer: "Ballads, sea songs, folk songs, a few lute solos on the guitar, that sort of thing." Since Seattle is currently strong on early music (The Seattle Early Music Guild, the Medieval Women's Chorus, and a couple of local early music groups), I try to draw a vague association between early music and what I do. I figure that since Custer La Rue of the Baltimore Consort sings a lot of folk songs and ballads, and since there actually is a strong connection anyway, I'm not really misleading them (too much. . . .). If the conversation continues, people usually ask things like "What, exactly, is a ballad?" and then I can explain things without having to wade through a lot of long-standing misconceptions about what folk music is.

And Thomas, yes, you're spot on about immersing yourself in the kind of music you want to do. And when you do that, self-teaching can work well, assuming you go about it in some logical manner, which it sounds like you have. I felt like I was coming from way behind when I first started. I had a rough idea of what I wanted to learn, but I didn't know where to find the information I needed, so I saw formal training as a way of jump-starting the process. Since I had a fairly clear idea of what I wanted to do, I was able to pick and choose what to concentrate on and what I didn't need to study all that deeply. When the third year at the U. of W. School of Music came along, I knew that what was being offered would take me off in directions I didn't think would be especially valuable to me (composition, orchestration, etc.), so I dropped out and started taking private theory lessons from Mildred Hunt Harris, a local composer and music teacher. She had me bring my guitar to the lessons and we worked with the songs themselves. She knew more about music in general than I did, but I knew more about folk music that she did, so as we worked through possible arrangements, she always left it to me to decide what was appropriate and what wasn't. Once she got the hang of what I was after, she was a great one for figuring out neat harmonic and contrapuntal lines and making them look like simple bass runs. Good teacher!

Wow! This is a heck of a discussion! Thanks for starting it!

Don Firth