" It has nothing to do with the singers and everything to do with the songs. "
Not so
It has to do with the way the songs are sung and how they fit into the description 'folk'
"that our only bone of contention is a number of contemporary songs, "
Tal about spectacularly missing the point
Quite frankly, I wouldnt care how many contemporary songs were sun if they represented a repertoire which was an extension of the tradition
The people I know/knew respected and liked traditional song would be happy to go on singing it, but I would be over the moon if I thought the that tradition had given rise to the creation of a significant number of songs which used the tradition as a template - the stuff put up here are far nearer to the modern disposable genre than anything like folk styles - non-narrative, introspected, over-accompanied.... everything that makes for the short lived output of the music industry
Why do you continue repeating nonsense - I have never suggested that people born after 1950 can't make traditional songs - I am saying they are not - not by those you've put up
By describing a folk scene with only 180 clubs as "health" you are deluding yourself
The link you gave for that claim largely features paid and successful performers - some superstars,a as being indicative of an upsurge in the folk scene
When I first came to the scene I was an apprentice electrician workign on the Liverpool docks - my fellow enthusiasts were warehousemen working in 'Paddy's Market', bus drivers, building workers, shopworkers..... ordinary lads and girls who, without the clubs, would have been confined to listening to thee pap poured out daily on the radio or the occasional Concerts - Cliff Richard and the Shadows, The Crickets, Billy Fury.... saw them all at the Liverpool Empire
The clubs gave us the chance to go out at night and make our own music and song
Now you put up booked stars who made it on the scene enough to get paid - or those who win prizes on the media controlled 'Folkie of tee Year competitions - as "success"
If they's lucky and can afford it, ther are the annual somewhat impersonal festivals where, if you are lucky, you might get the odd song in an overcrowded pub session - the festivals are another sign of the folkie success story
As far as I'm concerned, not only has the music been sold up the Swanee, but so has the very reason it was made in the first place, or ordinary people like me and my friends to communicate with each other artistically and become singers and songmakers in our own right
Missing the point me - not in a million years Dave
Youu and yors have spent a deal of time here avoiding the point - and your responsibility for bringing pout the dying mess that the folk scene has become
Jim