Monday, March 26, 2007. Note: I first posted this blog here on SoundClick on February 15 of this year, and then I posted it again on March 13. I originally wrote it in 2001 to console a friend whose application to perform at the Old Songs Festival in upstate New York had been rejected. When that same festival later rejected my own application, I read it again and found that it was still just as true. It has since been reprinted several times, most recently by singer Bob Lusk of Ulster County, NY, on his own blog. The accompanying photo is of Pete Seeger, whom I consider the most real folksinger of all. Pete was performing at the People's Music Network Winter Gathering at the Renaissance Charter School in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York, in January 2005. and Rose Connolly! A real folksinger borrows from others, and in turn expects that others will borrow from him/her. A real folksinger understands that all "anon" and "trad" songs had real live authors, and perhaps the greatest honor that can ever befall a real folksinger is to become the author of an anonymous/traditional song. If a real folksinger wants to make money, he/she gets a job. A real folksinger doesn't sing to an audience. A real folksinger gets the audience to sing. And if the audience whips out kazoos, tambourines, Jew's harps, and harmonicas and starts to play along, so much the better. Feel free to add your own comments. --- Steve