Folk songs became folk songs because folk kept singing them. Pop became pop by virtue of being popular. 

Familiarity and broad appeal is great, and I would never knock it even if I’ve never, to my shame, found the time to learn to play more than a couple of other people's tunes.  I love a good cover song and I love hearing great, familiar tunes. Shared, universal songs, the ones that we all know, bring us together. 

My achilles heel though, is the song that I’ve never heard before. An original. Fresh off the page. I like to hear other people sing them, especially the first time. I like to write them and sing them myself. 

I say “achilles heel”, because it is, as many other songwriters will attest, hard to build an audience purely on songs wot you writ yourself.  And I say that, these days, with a wry smile and a chuckle, not any sense of bitterness. 

I’ve written  a few hundred songs, and self released well over a hundred of them. And I’ve loved every minute of doing that. 

But here's a thing that may not surprise you. I received far more comments and local praise for my wee cameo (I sang the two George Michael lines!) in a charity cover and video of Feed The World, which I participated in last Christmas. Far more than I ever hear for the music I actually put the work into.  

It's one of life's little ironies, and perhaps one of the reason why I'm motivated to try and provide environments in which original songs can thrive.