fRoots Cultural Boycott (which is not aimed at "all things American" but at US cultural colonialism), states:

Where American music is concerned, it's partial cultural boycott time. We will continue to cover - but not disproportionately to other parts of the world - local or regional musics: blues, Cajun, conjunto, Appalachian, musics of immigrant communities, musics made by current writers if they are rooted in those traditions or address the problem. We will no longer give space to music that has no sense of roots, place or community."

Devon Sproule's music fits this criterion. Navel-gazing singer songwriters do not because their output has 'no sense of roots, place or community'. Moreover, to include them in some nebulous, wifty-wafty definition of 'f*lk' is a large part of the reason why I and others avoid using the term which has become all but meaningless.

How like the Cabbage-Patched cowardly cowboy of Twickenham to launch this miserable, inaccurate and unfair attack on fRoots the moment its Editor has departed for WOMEX. And what a reflection of his lack of grasp on reality for it to have not the slightest bearing on the topic currently being discussed on the fR forum which has landed here in a garbled form unintelligible to man nor beast.