One night at The Beech Karina played a brilliant traditional tune on an App on here phone. The App turned the phone into Ocarina.

I am not sure that the "First Revival" was a reivival at all. Song collectors found mostly old people who lived mostly in the countryside and collected some, just some, of their songs. Some of these songs were published in hardback books and many more were put into private collections. Some recitals were given of songs in arrangements for piano and sung by people with trained voices.

The real revival started in the 1950s with MacColl, Seeger, Lomax, Seeger, Beehan, Fisher and hundreds of others. This led to the folk clubs, festivals, singers and folk groups and recordings of the 60s and 70s.

This was a genuine revival of old songs because thousands and thousands of people sang thousands and thousands of old songs. Singers of 'traditional' songs were discovered, recorded and enjoyed by new generations of us.

Just like the source singers at the turn of the century they sang anything they fancied - music hall songs, hymns, songs from the radio and songs that clearly went a long time back. And that's what has been going on since our revival started in the 1950s.

Almost none of us are part of rural communities with a deap tradition of singing old songs. But I am part of a virtual community that has been singing within a tradition that is around 60 years old and uses songs that are up to 300 (?) years old. It is a living tradition and songs are often passed on orally.

I am not sure how much this matters. But we do have access to a fantastic collection of songs and tunes that work well in small acoustic spaces and I think we will continue to sing the songs and play the tunes. Some people will write songs and some will be taken up and survive - the living tradition?

We have a number of 'folk' events in Chorlton. One is Chorlton Folk Club where you can hear 20 + singers every Thursday and many sing there own songs. Their is an Irish tunes Session in The Beech every Monday. We hold a Singaround of mostly but not exclusively traditional songs on 1st & 3rd Wednesdays and a mostly English Beginners Tunes session on 2nd & 4th Wednesdays.

Each of these events could be called a folk club, each is very well attended. I think people understand how they are different and they pick the ones they like.

I think singing old songs in small acoustic spaces will continue because it's a good experience just as social/country dancing is.

Cheers

L in C#