Thanks for that Jim.

At least I've previously booked one artist on your "approved" list and she pulled in a crowd!....... and she even plays the banjo! Can't have it totally wrong then, even by your very tough and narrow definition.

I didn't ask you to adapt your definition, but as a club organiser I rely on pulling people in. If I don't then our club dies. To me, it is the nub of the argument, if you can't attract people in the music will die..... you've made the very point yourself (and you have blamed non-trad music in folk clubs as a reason why audiences might be dwindling).

We try to put on a varied programme, but most of the acts we book play/sing at least some traditional songs & tunes, or very trad sounding material. We put on a few acts that move away from this for a bit of variety. The average age of our audience is 40 - 50 (with a fair smattering of teens, 20's & 30's) which pretty much mirrors the demographic of the very rural area in which we live.

I think you would enjoy most of the evenings that we put on Jim and it's really very easy nowadays to check out an artist on YouTube, MySpace etc to see if they are your cup of tea.

Lay off the UK clubs a bit mate, they're probably not all like you imagine.

Leveller, thanks for your kind words.