Keeping abreast of this White hare and awards thing is rather tiresome, is anyone really that bothered? By anyone I mean the vast "unwashed" who will hear the song / songs on their merits, maybe the "trad" part was really an excuse for not being Pop, maybe the said Seth is a closet folkie, not really come out yet. The reality is that bickering like this, thankfully here and not in public, is niether here nor there, if I have an agenda it is to get more people out singing and playing rather than listening and if the said Seth's song does then so be it. I also don't think that pouring vitriol over Mike Harding is helpful eg; There was once a pub called the John Bull in York, it is now a car park, I was working at the land owners house and asked why he pulled it down..."I suffered so much personal abuse from the 'Save the John Bull committee' that I was determined to have the place pulled down, actually, before the abuse started, I planned to find a landlord who would pay his rent.....etc" and it does go on and on. Point is, working with people is better than trying to fight them, and, if one doesn't like the result, start a Folk Awards scheme using existing organisations. Personally I don't give a stuff, perhaps there is something else going on here, an "ownership" thing, when the great "unwashed" request a folk song, typicaly Wild Rover and Black Velvet Band it is usually met with blank or at worst derision, so, if that is all they know and are trying to connect and belong why are they not allowed in? Having said all that I don't think that The White Hare should be in the category that it is in and it has brought the whole awards thing into disrepute, maybe the BBC ought to take a long look at it, they won't because it there is no commercial value to doing so.
Peter