"We're not all living in the dim and distant past."
Whatever got you into folk song in the first place Steve?
That statement could have been one made by any 'anything-goes' folkie at any time over the last forty years - really doesn't give me too much confidence in some of the other things you've been arguing.
Sorry, I like my research with nowt taken out - 'anything goes' doesn't hack it for me when it comes to documenting or understanding the results of our lifetime's work.
There's a great deal of posturing here, but very little of substance
Plenty of abuse - even an ominous threat (just checked the alarm system - have yet to fit the bullet-proof windscreen into the car in case we do decide to visit West Cork) and a lot of misrepresentation.
I pointed out that there is not a workable alternative to the definition we have already - that appears to be the case.
I asked if, as I punter, I have a right to choose the type of music - it seems I haven't (Bryan, for all his aggressive blustering, is remarkably reticent when it comes to putting his money where his mouth is)
Muskett has shown his contempt for the people who put our musical food on the table in massive dollops "loosen your braces and sit down, drink your pint and we'll show you how it should be played", sums it up nicely.
Al and Bounty seem to regard argument and honest criticism as "insulting"
No new definition - just "it is what i say it is because I say so".
Many years ago I did vote with my feet, as did many others, because our choice was removed from us as to what we would hear when we went to a folk club and we were not particularly impressed with what on offer in place of what had been struck off the menu.
I was lucky where I lived - the clubs I could still frequent continued to feed both of my interests, as a lover of folk song and as a researcher.
The listening gradually disappeared elsewhere - if I want to listen to 1950-60s pop songs, I'll dig out my old Jerry Lee Lewis and Buddy Holly records played by the masters, rather than seek out poorer tribute versions at folk clubs.
Last week our radio producer friend proudly gave us a CD she had produced, entitled 'Unfolding - young musicians from East Clare' - an album of around twenty players, ages ranging from 11 to 19, playing Irish traditional music on fiddle, flute, concertina, harp, accordeon.... like old masters.
Sorry - I'll stick with what we have and what makes sense.
It seems totally illogical to me to have spent most of my life listening to, enjoying and researching a music that carries one type of enjoyment and information and then going to a folk club to be given something that has neither audible nor informative cohesion - "Now for something completely different" worked fine for Monty Python - not for me.
Jim Carroll