Hi Keith! Sorry about the long, long delay, but I only got back from holidays recently (in Bosnia of all places, but that's another story) and lots of other stuff happening, so I didn't really have time to log in.
Yes, I do like folk music, quite a lot in fact. I've been playing the guitar for the last 15 or 16 years, lots of different styles. I especially like old time American stuff, mountain music or whatever people call it, stuff like that. But I also go in for stuff like Buffy Saint-Marie (though to be honest, while I can strum the chords, there's no way I could sing like her even if I tried, so I have to adapt it a bit!). Blues is another firm favourite - Mississipi John Hurt, Son House, Bukka White etc., again, the 20s and 30s my favourite period, the style had changed quite a bit by the 40s. Myabe some wouldn't regard it as strictly folk, but I reckon a lot of blues and folk intertwine and it's hard to define it as one or the other. Then there's Irish folk music of course, since I come from Ireland, and heard a lot of it growing up and still do. That's one of the things I like best about Ireland - almost anywhere you go in the country you'll find live music being played in pubs etc., by very talented (and, ok, sometimes not so talented, but passable anyway) musicians. I travel a lot to Italy, and that tradition is almost non-existent now. You won't get much more than a CD of Afro-celt in any Irish pub in Rome or Florence. I gather they have more of a musical tradition further south, tarantellas, arias and so on, though I don't often go further south than Rome. I like the Neapolitan tradition of singing: Santa Lucia, O Sole Mio - hard to beat those tunes. I regard Naples as the Wales of Italy in that regard.
I occasionally play in pubs and stuff, just for my own and friends' amusement really, I am no wizard on the guitar. I also bring it to the woods when we have one of our all nighter BBQ / picnics during the summer (one for the solstice around June 21st has been a long-standing tradition with my friends and I) - it's hard to beat a few songs round a campfire, and being the musical country that it is, there's always several people who can play or have a song, so the guitar gets shared round. I use it at work too - I teach English to foreigners, and teaching them a song is a great way for them to learn English and have a little fun. So that's me, more or less. Good to be a signed up member instead of always logging in as Guest!