"the Folk Police are persecuting me" so beloved of singer-songwriters.

More likely the Folk Police will prosecute you for singing traditional material in a way that doesn't meet their particular criteria as to what constitutes acceptable traditional performance - like a certain uber-traddy on this forum who once dismissed my own singing of a traditional ballad as being somehow akin to bad pop music. Still smarting? Fecking right I am. I do my utmost to encourage anyone singing traditional material in whatever way they like, but always refer them back to the traditional singers (rather than revival stylists, which is a different issue) by way of reverence and NOT so they might impersonate them. I believe in Pure Drops and Pure Sources, but what people do after that is entirely up to them. Still, its a cranky old curmudgeonly world is Folk.

Last night at my Morpeth Gathering singaround we had 11 singers and an even mix of traditional & original material in an atmosphere of jovial conviviality by a huge baronial fireplace from 1656. I touched the ancient wood, feeling for the musical echoes of the last 350 years...