It is with some trepidation that I start this thread but I hope that it will be constructive and friendly. OK, here goes.....

I have a 10-year old daughter who has been brought up with folk music and loves it. She particularly likes Bellowhead, Eliza Carthy, Mawkin, The Levellers, Lucy Ward; she is learning the cello, the fiddle, the keyboard and wants to play guitar; she sees us perform and wants to do the same. But what does the future of folk music hold for her, as a listener and, perhaps, as a performer?

Now that the 'music-makers' who have been 'the movers and shakers, of the world forever, it seems' are getting older and passing on, will the battlelines between 'traditional' and 'contemporary' that we see on this board and elsewhere start to merge? Will 'folk' music itself, or whatever you choose to call it, become more a part of the mainstream music scene or still maintain its own identity as a genre? Will the youngsters listen to what we have to say or just go right ahead and plough their own furrows?

Do you have kids? Are they interested in folk music? If so, what musical future do you wish for them?