Seth is very talented, has done lots to bring vibrancy to the folk scene, and deserves several awards. This is not about Seth, Mad Person is right, the poor fellow has been caught in the middle. Neither is it about Mike Harding's or John Leonard's abilities. It is simply about an arbitrary (and accountable to no-one) process that allows a newly-written song with well-understood provenance to be labelled "traditional".

It isn't even about squeezing some other worthy recording out of the competition.

It is about that anoracky but oh, so important point that history can not be re-written. By anyone. There's a line in Pete Atkin's "Practical Man" that says "...there are just some songs that are not for sale".

This should also hold for the label "traditional".

My own home country's tradition thrives, and despite new songs constantly being written in traditional style (some great ones among them) there is no ambiguity as to what is traditional and what isn't. And no Greek would sell or buy that label for anything.

I am somewhat surprised that some people here are willing to let go, because "it doesn't matter". Because in my book, it surely does.