Back from vacation... and Amateurs

Had a nice and refreshing vacation last week... Enjoyed some time in the mountains...

Spent some time at the Woodlands BBQ place... We listened to a few folks singing their hearts out - singing cover songs with just a guitar or two. Those folks make live music special. I'm thankful that no-one is hunting them down for royalties on those cover songs.

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On another subject, a peeve if you will... I've read criticisms of artists' works in recent times that mix real (helpful) constructive criticism with elitist (unhelpful) criticism.

OK, so some folks are amateurs. They use "MIDI" drums/canned instruments... their recordings don't match $500/hr. studio recordings... They don't have $10K racks of cool (and really wonderful) gear carefully selected over decades of experienced use and professional tutelage... Perhaps they're using an Ibanez and not a Martin acoustic... Perhaps they don't have 8 million really cool pedals and awesome amps... Does that make their music less valuable? Does music made outside a huge studio with full instrumentation make their music less "musical?" Should folks dismiss amateur music because it is not produced by the few and not marketed by the few?

I think not.