There may be an 'us and them' thing, but its from both sides if there is.None the less, we are all people. We come from all walks of life and here we can communicate freely.

'Your people,' that's OK.Its only natural. All people have 'us and them.' It's human nature. No point in denying reality. We simply need to work with what's given rather than base our view on illusions.

We have ' my family'[group] and 'your family'[group] we are all part of a larger human family.... Of course who is considered to be a part of the family depends on many, many things.


I too have no wish to cover old ground. Brian has clearly stated the motivation behind his thread, and to an extent how we should view what is 'traditional' in the context of this discussion.

That said, I learnt my songs within my community, from friends and family., but not blood relatives.[ None of my birth family are musicians or singers.]

To be honest I had never even heard of a folk revival, apart from a few vague mentions on the internet in the last few years. Perhaps I am part of it? but if so then Capn's point is very valid.That there is no dividing line between the revival and the tradition. Its just an artificial label. we are all just singers.

As far as my own views go I am pretty clear as to how I define traditional music. It has mostly too do with the melody and feeling. not the lyrics. for whatever language its sung in, it is the musical rather than lyrical aspects that I would mainly use as my basis for definition. I have never used the term folk music. Thats not to say that as a singer I have no interest in the words, to the contrary, I love a good song, the twist and turns, the stories, the tricks and all. I would also use the style of presentation as criteria, a trad song can be sung in a very untraditional way and vice versa.

To me its all fluid, yet Its also clearly defined. It is, or it isn't.

Just as with friends, there is a saying' "Your friends will know you better in the first minute you meet than your acquaintances will know you in a thousand years''