Thanks for the pointer to the book: I shall look out for it (and may even extend myself to chasing it up if it isn't for sale at Fylde this weekend).

Is this ideal traditionalist Chris Wood the same guy who has backed this arch villainess Kate Rusby? I think some people need to square some circles in their thinking.

So one dancer doesn't like the singing? That's no great surprise, is it? Look at the tension between musicians and singers at some sessions. ("You've sung one song, I shall now play this one set.....") I don't like blues. So?   Is this a symptom of a deep-rooted hatred of blues in the folk movement? I might like to think so, but don't see much evidence!

I only go to one club, and (shock horror gasp) it may well happen that no traditional song is sung in any one evening. On another, it may be nearly all traditional, depending upon the guest and floor singer(s). But "singer-songwriter" and "traditional" are not mutually exclusive except in closed minds. To pick one example, a songwriter like Jez Lowe is pretty close to the popular folk song of the North East. Here in the NW there seems to be a pretty healthy mix of the new and the old.

Just one point: I think the Spinners were a lot more popular than Bert Jansch. Talented though the latter is, and however influential to generations of tortured student guitar players, more people enjoyed the Spinners.