"I think the difficulty many of us have as that we don't see evidence of the "takeover" you allege has taken place."
Most oof "us" here Howard
Go ask the thousands who walked away when they turned up at folk clubs and could no longer hear folk songs
The stupid things if taht folk song hasn't been driven away by more commercial music - if that were the case there would be far more folk clubs and far greater audiences
Nobody is going to turn up to listen to long dead music hall songs, or Victorian Parlour Ballads, or faded and rejected pop songs - but that seems to be what has replaced many of the traditional songs
By doing whet people have done to 'folk' clubs, they have robbed folk song of its uniqueness and have failed to replace it with anything as unique homogeneous or identifiable
A trip to a folk club is a not-so Magical Mystery Tour
That helps nobody - certainly not the genuine folk song follower
Have to leave this for a few days shortly - hpe you're still around when I get back
Jim