" like you have accused me of being."
I invited you to provide proof for your accusation against fellow folk-song enthusiasts; you declined to
I gave you ample evidence that what you said about them was not true, you chose not to respond
I take as I find Al.
I pointed out that your accusations began with the members of the Grey Cock being "unfriendly" then later moved on to their being incompetent musicians who all wore 'fishermen's smocks - you warmed to your abusing fellow performers, becoming more inventive as you went along.
Again, you chose not to respond.
Sorry Al - I take as I find, especially when it comes to things I know not to be true by a club whose contribution has been as valuable to folk music as it has been, and continues to be.
"but your definition of folk music is that used only in rarefied academic circles - not by anyone either engaged in playing and promotion - or listening to"
Once again - not true.
The definition I use is one that is fully documented - yours is not.
As a lover of folk song I don't need a 'definition' I know what it is, so did everybody when down the years.
This total abandoning of any form of definition is a relatively new one - you are the new kids on the block
In a way, attempting to show that we are the oddballs, the 'out-of-steps' is a form of dishonesty until you tackle the fact that our denintion is overwhelmingly the one that has been defned and used
The only place we are the ones out of step are in those clubs that have abandoned all forms of definition.
Our definition has nothing to do with academia - it is the one that got the ball rolling way back in the 1950s, it is the one that the BBC used when they set out to record the remnants of folk singing in Bratain and Ireland, it is the one that floated Topic Records and produced such magnificent sets as 'Folk Songs of Britain.... right through to the latest 'Voice of the people, series.
I have pointed a hundred times to the fact that there are 100s of collections of folk songs on our shelves based on the definition...
Claiming that we are academics, oddballs, out-of-step, academic, in the minority, is self-deluding dishonesty.
WE have the track record and the documentation to prove it - you have none of these things, just the misuse of a long established term
I've shown you mane dozens of times - now show me yours
Jim Carroll