Bernard and Kingbrilliant have it right! I once heard a singing member of our local rezzy band being challenged by a cynic with the question "what is folk music?". Tony looked him right in the eye with a pitying expression; "It's what folk sing, man!" A good folk club can have an atmosphere that welcomes the best [and sometimes the worst---but that never repeats!] of traddy and contemporary "folk" ' blues, blue-grass, pop or country.As I say the reaction to any yucky stuff ensures that it is shortlived. The big danger of traditional folk is the gleeful rendition of some obscure ditty which the performer has dug up in some ancient manuscript or archive. If somebody findsa one-hundred-year-old jam jar, it is undeniably an antique---but to a genuine antique lover, it is still only a bloody JAMJAR and should be left buried or used for roadmetal; so with some "traddy gems". Boab