Can't be doin with this music war that some people seem to get into i.e. opera versus pop versus classical versus folk etc. If you think opera or 'classical' music is crap, fair enough, its a personal opinion. For me, well i went to a crackin Kate Rusby gig last Friday and even more crackin (as usual) Roy Harper gig the following night and i'll be at he BBC phil on satday listening to Mahler 3. I reckon
the reason folk music is under-promoted so much in England (especially) is because of the predomenently upper-class, profi-motivated attitudes still embedded in our society and folk, like blues and jazz is classed by the media moguls as a 'minority' taste which is their way of saying there's not enough bloody profit in it!! Although there's some brill performers on the 'folk' circuit - professional and amateur - they can't be packaged, super-sold and exploited quite the same way as the 'pop' industry is (thank god). You only have to take a look at the unmitigated garbage classed as entertainment that's thrown out by the tv channels ('specially at w/ends) to see what 'their' priorities are!

As Roy once said...'If all of this super-sale overkill world is for real, there's no way to go kid, so you might as well start to free wheel'