Dear "cubanpete"...

You're welcome, but I gotta disagree with you, sir, and vehemently, about your self-described reference to the alleged "non-deserved" praise you received. The fact that you composed music that is so illustrative of a musical tradition that is said to have originated in a region of the United States that you say you have no first-hand knowledge of, makes the composition even more impressive.

Why is that? Because to my mind, what was at work within you as you composed "By The Front Porch" was your musical imagination, your soul, and not your literal connection to the customs, culture, and/or geography of the South. If the test of a composer's musical legitimacy was based on him/her being born, raised, and dying in a place where the musical style he/she works in evolved, that musician would be severely and unfairly limited in what they could produce. It would be akin to being told that you couldn't possibly, truly appreciate dining on Creole cuisine because you ain't from New Orleans!

I am utterly convinced that a composer's ability to write music in any genre is absolute, inarguable proof of what I believe is the fact that all of us are a part of each other; genetically, culturally, socially, and in whatever other ways people have interacted with other.

The latest discoveries in the field of DNA research have proven that over the vast span of historical time on this planet, people have physically migrated from one continent to another, have intermarried, then moved on again to another place where they raised their children, who repeated the same pattern and scattered themselves all over the globe, which, to me, means that there ain't no such thing as "pure" music, anywhere. It has all grown out something else that came before it.

As I said above, "true" music that entertains, excites, and moves it listeners comes straight out of the composer's soul, and not their heads.

So, go ahead and say, "Wow!", take your bow, and then write some more music -- right now!

Sincerely,

"bluage" (a.k.a. Loren)

"Music is what feelings sound like."-- borrowed from a Cakewalk Music Creator forum member, "Mamabear".