Driving through Tow Law last night (even picking up some Xmas-dinner style sarnies at the Co-op which we scoffed along the road at Kirkby Stephen) I was reminded of the legendary concert put on by Ewan MacColl and A.L.Lloyd to give the Durham Miners back their folk song heritage. It was at this concert, legend has it, that they first met Alan Lomax who was presumably on his travels seeking out pure Untainted Folk Source Singers - and there was MacColl & Lloyd corrupting the fossil record. I must add, this is part of the Myth, Legend and Folklore of the Folk Revival, but underlines the general agenda-ridden idiocy whereby our noble collectors are more intersted in specific song types tham they were in the actual nature of the cultures which they so keen on plundering, if they'd had what they were looking for: that elusive beast called Folk Song which was driven to extintion by the odious incursions of Radio, TV, and records of popular music.

Remember: The term can be applied to music that has been evolved from rudimentary beginnings by a community uninfluenced by popular and art music and it can likewise be applied to music which has originated with an individual composer and has subsequently been absorbed into the unwritten living tradition of a community.

Still, nice to know they were finding such pure-blood communities and source singers in Ireland as recently as 1981, no doubt entirely untainted by nigh on 100 years of Folk Revival and Folk awareness; and nice to know that the Purity of its Virginal Source Singers is still highly cherished, and that, no doubt, The Wee Folk themselves are tormenting Darby O'Gill with promises of yet more treasures to come (or whatever the hell that film was about; haven't seen it since I was 5).

The Arts establishment has finally recognised the social, cultural and historical importance of traditional music

Where there is money for it, there will be pure-folk on tap; as pure as you want it. Don't be surprised to find more hitherto untapped reserves of hitherto uncollected 100% Proof Pure Irish Folk Song sung by 100% Proof Pure Irish Source Singers turning up soon in the Limerety-Limerety Hill Hockles*, totally and unconditionally without interference of course. I hear in Ireland they are planning to created hermetically sealed reservations where 100% Traditional Communities will exist entirely innocent of any of the other aspects of 21st Centure culture and technology that has so corrupted other countries. These will exist a bit like The Trueman Show, with carefully selected government operatives working on The Inside ready to collect examples of Pure Folk Song as and when they occur, using up to date digital recording equipment disguised as wax-cylinder devices. The inmates will be allowed no TV, no radio, and subsist entirely on a meage diet of potatos; even Soda Bread is regarded as being Too Risky. No actual education will be allowed, and medical intervention is to be kept to a minimum, although more prized singers will get the help they need, but without exposing them to the corrupting influences they are likely to encounter in 21st Century hospitals. Despite humanitarian concerns, the Government feels that any ethical considerations will be more than adequately compensated for by the purity of the Traditional Folk Song that will result.

Your loaded language reduces their contribution to that of 'personality', a commonplace in today's revival.

So Ewan MacColl & Peggy Seeger weren't celebrity folk personalities in their day? It's a matter of scale of course, I don't remember either being on Parkinson, but in terms of the Revival Scene they were, and continue to be, revered in exactly the same way.

we can all deal in nastyisms when we put our minds to it

Seems to me its second-nature to you though, Jim - throwing your toys around because someone dares question the hallowed infallibility of Holy Scripture and the myths it has given rise too, much less the more intriguing Tales and Folklore, such as the Tow Law anecdote which is put part of a vast body of Ewanlore, but part of his carefully managed celebrity.

* For those who don't get the reference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMm-WVt6RQA