Top of the heap for me are traditional tunes of Ireland, Northumberland and Scotland (in that order). I can't sing but I love singing. If you sing down your nose I'm going for a wee. Singer-guitarists had better be bloody good guitarists and they should leave the harmonica rack at home. I adore Nic Jones. Over-embellished accompaniment and slick arrangements are just showing off. I like some Fairport and Steeleye but not much of it. I thought that Sandy Denny was wonderful. I'm a bit of a Shirley Collins completist for reasons I've never been able to understand. If you haven't got No Roses you haven't lived. No Watersons for me, thanks, or any of that Spiers/Boden racket. On the whole I dislike groups, especially the slick modern young bucks, but there's a special place in my heart for Planxty, the Bothies, Altan (seen 'em three times) and De Dannan. And Patrick Street, consummate musicians all. I can hear meself clapping on their live album. And Luke Kelly is absolute numero uno. I confess to listening and singing along to mucho Christy in the car. Seen Christy live four times. I saw loads of really good live acts at the Tree Inn Folk Club before its demise. House Band, Andy Irvine, Roy Bailey, Martin Carthy, Liam O'Flynn, Wizz Jones, Vin Garbutt, Wood/Cutting (superb), Davy Steele, Dick Gaughan, John Kirkpatrick, Jez Lowe and the Bad Pennies, Pauline Cato and Tom McConville (they were at the Garland Ox in Bodmin), Show of Hands, Noel Murphy (begod that man could sink pints), and a lot more that I feel I'm insulting by leaving them out due to forgetfulness. Oh, Ron Kavana and Friends, the ottimo. The nub is that I enjoyed all of 'em because I saw them live. I've always found something a bit odd about listening to traditional music on CDs, though I still do it, not so much these days, and there's nothing like doing it yourself. As for the old timers/source singers, well it has to be recordings only, which can be a drawback. Listening to old taped stuff can't convey what it must have been like to be there in the pub or the kitchen hearing them doing their stuff. But we can learn a lot about our heritage from them. In fact, if we no longer listen to them I'm not sure we can understand what our heritage is.

And no bloody award ceremonies or competitions, please!