"To dwell only in the immediate present has been the source of much wrong since the evil Thatcher asserted that there was no such thing as society. Those who learn not from history are doomed to repeat its mistakes."

Couldn't agree more, Richard, which is why I maintain that the genres of traditional and 'contemporary-folk' music can, should, and in the tolerant majority of venues do, live side-by-side. As in all things, variety is the spice of life! :-)

But this is really a thread for our US-brothers and sisters. What they regard as 'traditional' and 'folk' is often seemingly quite different to what us UK-dwellers would recognise (for example Ron's assertion that Kathy Mattea, wonderful though she most certainly is, is a folk-artist doesn't ring any bells with me).

And, even as a mostly contemporary performer myself, I'd hate to go to a 'Folk Festival' that had no 'traditional' content - it dahn't make no sense, Gav'nah!