Dave sez: I get the impresssion that there are certain elements that champion any folk music except British and American out of fear of being called xenphobic and not being clever enough to see the kings new clothes.

Who are these elements, Dave? Most people I know who like folk music from other places also have more folk music from English speaking countries in their record collections than is strictly good for them. I don't know anyone who likes this stuff out of fear. Still, it takes all sorts, I believe.

I don't think it has anything to do with 'the king's new clothes', either (for a start off, its been possible to buy folk music from all around the world and go to concerts by visiting overseas musicians longer than I've been listening to music). It's just about being open minded and listening to different things, and personally I've never been a fan of resticting myself to a narrow diet.

Will, as the fiend who strted this thread, I get heartily fed up of some of the insular, xenophobic stuff you see on Mudcat from some British folkies. That's why I started it. I'm fine with people having different tastes to me, but when the folk music of entire cultures is cavalierly dismissed and magazines like fRoots who champion it are disparaged because of some sort of weird agenda about it somehow not being fair to English folk singers, as we saw on the other thread, I do think it's worthy of comment. If that makes me 'self-righteous', so be it...

I would like a Polynesian arse-trumpet, though.

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Here's a clip of Vishwa Mohan Bhatt. I wouldn't know about him were it not for fRoots, either.