Crow Sister seems exceptionally shrewd for someone who hasn't been at the game long. I agree with almost everything you've said sis', but a number of points in particular. On future gazing who can say what will be viewed as traditional in a hundred years time, I wouldn't be surprised to see the current repertoir still in existence, hermetically sealed from incursions, the music a century older and sung by small groups of re-enactors with similarly bellicose views.

I also sense the revivalists will die off in the next fifteen years and the revival with it. We'll all mourn the passing of that peculiarly grumpy, well-meaning, innocent, misguided group of baby boomers and their broadsides about broadsides but will be able to console ourselves - if we haven't been gathered to Arthur's bosom with them - that their passing has bugger all to do with the history of folk music one way or another, save for a few who sang it particularly well.

I'll certainly mourn their wilful misinterpretation of any comment which questions the authenticity of the revival and the lengthy counterblasts which accompany it.