And check out the links I made above last year, Dick, too.

Also the Carrivick Sisters.

I was at an open mic at the Axminster Inn in Devon last night. There were 19 performers on between 0830 and 0030. Ages ranged from late teens to late 50s, with most people in their 20s/ 30s.

I played *one* of my songs as a simple strum, but "recruited" a young guitarist and a bass player to help me on that, and they both improvised brilliantly around my strumming, despite neither knowing the song....really fleshed it out.

Not *one* player did their full set of 3 songs strumming. All did at least one fingerstyle or hybrid song. As I said way above, and as Spleen Cringe reinforced, these youngsters are there and doing fine, but just don't choose to play in "old farts' venues" mainly.

Buskers are hardly a representative sample...most, in my recollection, have *always* thrashed!