With respect, anybody who thinks folk is as popular now as it was say in the '60s is IMO a little deluded [.....] or are they merely passive consumers of the "product" in the same way that Winehouse/Mika fans (a hugely bigger group) are? I would posit the latter.

Accepting the fact that the protagonist of this is on the Pembrokeshire Coastal Path - and good luck to him, I really think he needs to get out more.

There is far more "folk" music far, far more - than there ever was in the "hey day" of folk clubs - and unlike Gene I am old enough to have been at both places. Though we had folk clubs - we rarely had sessions - you could rustle up a few guitar players the odd concertina player, that was it. A few guitar players do not a session make. There were a few festivals, now there are dozens and dozens.

A whole variety of instruments abound - let me mention a few from Cheltenham festival; apart from the obvious fiddles guitars melodeons, flutes accordions and bodhrans - I saw at least three hammer dulcimer players, a couple of saxes, a few recorder players, whistles, an ordinary and a bass clarinet. And as a stallholder I never left the Town Hall so goodness knows what there were out in the pub sessions.

So far from being passive consumers - folkies are active particpants in music making. Far more than there ever were. Folk clubs are less. That's all. (They seem to be growing incidentally)

And there are seem to be hundreds more singer - songwriters than there ever were.