probably the outright hostility comes from listening to all the rubbish versions of blackwaterside that you never get to hear....

i'm not really sure what you expect from ordinary people. i think many of the brilliant trad musicians i have heard would do a brilliant spot most places. i'm not sure a proper roots singer like Walter Pardon, or Fred Jordan could do one - which i suspect is what jim is going on about. and that is a weakness - buthere again -they don't welcome us into their strongholds.

i think that very ornate style of singing that Sean Canon used to do might have a thin time of it. but Sean was a great performer -he could play guitar and fiddle. i can't imagine him getting wrongfooted.