"Working Radish",

I agree with your points, broadly, but the sessions I was describing in my original (very long) post were of the "singaround" variety rather than "open mic/ open stage". Acoustic, with everyone contributing (or not!) in turn.

There *is* a lot of creativity at open mic sessions...I go to one in Axminster when I occasionally have to visit Devon for work, and the standard of musucianship, singing and creativity there is very high. But the format is one person or group getting up at a time and playing through a PA from a "stage area". Usually a set of several songs. I make a big distinction between those sessions and the singarounds I go to locally, though there is creativity at both of them.

I think that we're pretty much arguing the same thing, though: society has moved on and while it's great to have so much preserved from the past, some "good things" are still happening in the present.

This is where I take issue with Jim C, who seems to believe that almost *all* our current musical culture is predicated on manufactured stuff, passively consumed. "The kids" I know today are largely just as scornful of commercial radio playlist stuff as my generation were when we scorned Freddie & The Dreamers and Herman's Hermits and are just as active in creating their own music scene in pubs, clubs and small venues as we were. Most of my children's friends play and/or sing, and none of them would dream of auditioning for one of the TV "talent" shows, or expect to make money from it.

Whether it's "folk" or not is irrelevant in countering Jim's point that we're all passive consumers now.