I Like To Say I'm More Conservative

I Was Working For Alan Lomax In The Library Of Congress Folk Song Archive, And Starting To Realize What A Wealth Of Different Kinds Of Music There Was In This Country That You Never Heard On The Radio.

Did You Ever Want Something Really Bad And Then When You Finally Got It All You Could Do Was Stand There And Grin At It?

Way Back In The Old Days, Say In Europe Of The Middle Ages, You Had An Aristocracy, And They Could Afford To Pay For Musicians. The Kings And Queens Had Musicians In The Castles, And That Developed Into Symphony Orchestras And What We Call "classical Music" Now.

My Mother Wanted Me To Learn How To Read Music. She'd Given Fiddles To My Two Older Brothers, But They'd Rebelled. I Came Along And My Father Said, "oh, Let Peter Enjoy Himself." What She Did Was Leave Musical Instruments All Around The House. Whistles, Marimbas, Squeeze Boxes, A Piano And Organ. By Age Six Or Seven, I Could Bang Out A Simple Tune On Almost Anything. I Developed A Good Ear, So I Didn't Learn To Read Music Until I Taught Myself At Age Eighteen, 'cause I Was Hearing So Many Good Songs I Couldn't Possibly Remember Them All.

Now Any Person Who Plays An Acoustic Guitar Standing Up On Stage With A Microphone Is A Folk Singer. Some Grandmother With A Baby In Her Arms Singing A 500-year-old Song, Well, She's Not A Folk Singer, She's Not On Stage With A Guitar And A Microphone. No, She's Just An Old Grandmother Singing An Old Song. The Term "folk Singer" Has Gotten Warped.