I have no desire to see the 'tradition maintained', I never have had; the tradition is dead and has been for a long time.

I've often pondered to what extent the tradition was ever alive in the first place - and would we have ever recognised it as such had we been around at the time? Or was it fucked over by the very people who were trying to preserve it? Whatever the case, what we have now is a very recent construct that has already had its day; it plods on regardless, occasionally fretting over its imminent demise, and belatedly wondering how it might attract younger participants even though it did nothing to engender, encourage or facilitate a second generation when it might have had the chance - hence the general decrepitude we find in folk clubs and singarounds today. When the last baby-boomer folk revivalist has popped their clogs, perhaps we might be able to gain some sort of perspective on the Folk Revival as a cultural / historical phenomenon, but here in its very evident autumn I feel the best we can do is accord it the respect of the dying, allowing it to sip the last of the summer wine in the dignity of its idiosyncratic dotage whilst tearfully reminiscing over the rare owld times.

So - take it as you find it, and give thanks that it's there at all; it is what it is, regardless of how you think it ought to be. These days I'm treating each session and singaround as if it's my last & living it accordingly. I'm taking nothing for granted, because once it's gone, it won't be coming back.