I have just hit 40 with a resounding thud and really only got into folk music in the last ten years or so, but it isn't something I like to talk about publicly.Folk music in Britain is still grouped in with morris dancers, aran sweaters and rather dodgy chartered accountants giving it plenty ( off key) in the public bar, with their finger in their ear and singing about things they know nothing about such as seafaring, famine or coal mining. It's not surprising we are viewed with suspicion!

A straw poll of the younger generation.... ( well, I asked my 18 year old)appear to take the view that folk music is depressing. My daughter reckons the plot is always the same in the end i.e. they all died. Most people don't know about the humourous songs or the parodies. Pity, really.