I've experienced plenty of boredom and irritation in what Jack B woudl call Designated Folk Settings, Al. I've even walked out a couple of times ("a tediously predictable song about the poor oppressed workers is one thing, but we're not having a tear-jerker about the poor oppressed white settlers in Africa", my legs said to me as they carried me to the door). And I won't say I've never heard a bad rendition of a traditional song - of course I have. (Although I've never yet heard a bad Blackwaterside.)

Here's what I don't like in a performance, in no particular order (I'm talking here about singarounds and floorspots; the rules for paid acts are a bit different). I don't like: mumbling into notebooks and songsheets; unengaging, phoned-in delivery; people singing who really don't have (or haven't developed) a singing voice; people grabbing the spotlight and prefacing their one song with a long story which isn't interesting or funny; songs in the form of "here's what I think and I'm right aren't I?" sermonising.

I've seen every one of those many more times at free-for-all folk clubs than at mostly-trad singarounds.