Nice post there Marje.

Being fairly newish (compared to most here) to traditional song, I was somewhat amused/perplexed (still am I guess) when I arrived at MC by all the anger that I saw around something I just thought was really interesting!

The divide however certainly exists (at least in my observation) and there is an evident underlying antagonism or antipathy between the approximate camps of 'folkie' and 'traddie'.

What inspired this thread was another one - and particularly my respones to that thread - about singing from books. At *no point* did I ever criticise those individuals who choose to use a prompt - yet such criticism was automatically assumed by some of those who responded to me. 'Hmm' thinks I, 'people here are reacting in automatic fashion to something they imagined was writ, just because I'm clearly not of 'them' but of the 'other'.
Secondly however, on reflection I also noticed my own personal disdain, and online ridicule (albeit posted in playful terms), of people who like to all sing together from the same book.

I suppose in posting this thread, I was hoping other folks might take a look at their predjudices and assumptions and antipathies, and think about from whence they arise, and how all this heated squabbling really comes about. Alternatively, it's just a thread I started out of pure badness.
Possibly a bit of both.. ;-)