I've been running singarounds at Sidmouth and Chippenham festivals, and going to singarounds at other festivals. I've noticed that we sometimes have more than one song in one session that was written by Keith Marsden, Dave Webber, Roger Bryant, Mick Ryan, Stan Rogers - because they are good songs that people enjoy singing and joining in with.

One year at Chippenham, a lady sang a Martin Graebe song without knowing that the author was sitting unassumingly in the singaround waiting for his turn to sing.

I think folk music is about people making their own entertainment, not the academic preserving of historical tradition, which is academic and historical, not folk, which is organic. Great stuff and worth preserving - and also a source of inspiration for new generations to give a different treatment to.

The Child ballads, after all, come from the days when peoople entertained themselves by singing and telling stories.

Kitty