How has the folk music scene changed since the ’60s?
Well, folk music never dies. It sort of lays low for a while. Folk music has never gone away. Folk music as a part of top-40 radio will come and go, come and go. It’s a root form that influences music in the popular vein. But as a genre, it’s alive and well. It may have had a dicey moment there in the ’70s and early ’80s, but picked up steam all over the place in the late ’80s and these early ’90s. Has it changed? I think there’s a little less emphasis on the traditional, which is unfortunate. Because if I were the Commissar of Folk, I would pretty much say that every person who sings in the folk genre should include, at the very least, one or two traditional songs in every set. It’s important to preserve and carry on that music. And if you don’t do it, who will? Do younger artists ever express indebtedness to you? Sometimes. But certainly I don’t encourage it (laughs). I like to think we’re all in this thing together. I don’t think anybody sets out in this world to be a folksinger. It
