"The idea that Folk Music has to be 'relevant' is a politically correct, Twentieth Century fabrication."

Ummmm, wasn't it 'relevent' at some point back 'in the day'? Where did all the songs come from if it wasn't? What about the ballads of people being pressed into the Navy for example? Did that not happen?

As I saw it, the 'folk' songs that we sing now came from the real experiences of the people who 'wrote' them, which is just what Billy has been doing.

But more than that, I don't see that just becuase a song was written about the Napoleonic wars it isn't relevant today; we still have wars; lovers still head off into the blue (albeit with better telecommunications); people still have one-night stands (although not in hay-ricks with Grenadiers). Although, I suppose, at least we don't get pilloried for haveing sex out of wedlock these days; but then I also find it hard to notice a lovely May morning, living in the smoke as I do, so there's good and bad in the modern world.