We really don't seem to have moved away from the repetition = tradition stance that has blighted all these discussions and obviously will continue to do so for some time to come.
"Folk is a subject of fetishism for a crypto-religious elite that doesn't really connect with the 'real world'"
Ten years ago, when I retired I was full of enthusism for publishing - a collection of Travellers songs maybe, or a book on Walter Pardon, and certainly an oral autobiography based on the hundred or so tapes we recorded from Mikeen McCarthy the Traveller ballad seller.
It's snideswipes such as this that have largely persuaded me that it is really not worth the effort and it would be far more beneficial to leave it all on the shelf and let posterity decide.
When this comes wrapped in verbal self-abuse aimed (as far as I can make out when I manage to cut my way through the clever-clever verbal undergrowth) at tearing down something others have done without offering a trace of your own work, it doesn't even have a great deal of entertainment value
All very depressing
Jim Carroll