Tim, there are lots of sessions and singarounds that welcome a wide variety of folk, singer/songwriter, acoustic, etc. The two sessions nearest me are exactly like that, and if I get up to sing an unaccompanied song I usually have several offers of guitar accompaniment (which is very sweet). Maybe you need to explore a few clubs and sessions and find one that feels right to you.

We're talking about ONE award specifcally for traditional music - the only one that the BBC includes in the folk awards. Defending it does not equate to making value judgements or casting aspersions on the rest of folk and acoustic music. I agree that Seth Lakeman is doing an awful lot, through pop-tinged folk, to bring new audiences to the music which can only be a good thing. But when those new audiences have been around a while, some of them might want to explore the heritage of this music, see where it came from, get back to the source. That's what preserving the tradition is about. Not exclusivity, but protecting that heritage. For anyone and everyone who chooses to explore it.

And if you never do, it doesn't make you a "bad folky" - well, not as far as I'm concerned, anyway.