On the trad side of things there are buckets full of young people playing the music in the UK - either as professional performers or just whooping it up at festivals and sessions.

On the broader side of things, if a band like Mumford and Sons and artists like Laura Marling can be doing so well, there's plenty of hope for music made on acoustic instruments. They may not be my cup of tea, but plenty of people like 'em, buy their records and go to their gigs. Even if only a small percentage of these choose to dig deeper, as it were, that's pretty heartening.

Mine was the generation that abandoned folk music - me included. But that was 30-odd years ago and we've got over it.