For myself, there's something peculiar about expecting to make a career out of singing tradition songs .

I am not sure why this should be so? Most people who try and make a living at singing traditional songs that I have known - started by doing it at weekends and locally. Then got more work and became fulltime. Others have supportive partners. Most get by but like the life. Some like Tom (and I do hope I speak correctly of him here) found that mostly whilst he was just about scraping a living costs were going up faster than income.

But why not make a living doing something you love? As it happens I was talking yesterday to someone who has done it, is one of the hardest working musicians I know - and thinks it is a great life. Why would you not want to do it?