Nothing new about all this, of course. Look at the dozens of threads labouring all these points to death that have been here on the Cat since it started. But that was nothing new even then. These exact points, v much on Jim's side of the matter, were an obsession of mine in my monthly Folk Review column which ran thru a lot of the 1970s, to the extent that Fred Woods, the editor, insisted after a while that I should address other issues. In fact I had done so for all the time up to then anyhow. I had written of the traditional aspects of all sorts of matters from card games to 'Watership Down'. But it was this good old "So what is Folk?" issue, that I dealt with just now & again, that people noticed & responded to, that brought the letters in from Ian A Anderson et al; & which got me both supported and denounced in innumerable discussions and workshops at folk festivals. It was in one of these, Norwich, that Peter Bellamy said, in reply to an assertion by organiser Alex Atterson as to what he thought should go on in a folk club, "That's not a folk club, it's an anything club", that I have quoted recently (is it above on this thread or on the "Definition" one? Can't remember!). I recall a nice moment on the way to that session, walking in a heterogeneous group to the appointed hall at Norwich Uni, when the man next to me said to his neighbour, "This should give us all a chance to have a go at Michael Grosvenor Myer!"   "I think you might find him a match for you," I put in. & we walked on.]

And still, way-hay and on we go.

A tradition, innit!

≈M≈