and I suppose, also, that I'm not talking about 'innovation' per se, so much as that elusive quality known as 'attitude'. I mean, the Demon Barbers and Bellowhead are all very well, but they're not really the kind of thing I'm talking about.

I hear more of a continuum back to the classic albums of the folk revival (and even, to an extent, to the 'source singer' recordings) in the fringe folk of today than I hear among the kind of 'young professionals' folk acts that tend to win awards and headline festivals.