Remember the Spinners? But you're right, its unusual.The Boat Band has done a lot of tours with JC Gallow. Perhaps you would expect folk tobe more culturally/racially homogneous, though, give it's origin in longstanding cuktural habits? Notwhite, but white or black or brown or yellow depending what kind of folk isbeing played. EII represents a conscious fusion of two types of folk music so it is a rather special case.
I played in a band the other day with an English/Kurdish/Afghan/Liberian/Nigerian/Ghanaian/Kenyan lineup: it's unusual, but not as unusual as all that. And yesterday I was in a session on a boat with three Maoris, one Bosnian, four English, one Welsh and several noisy children who'd got into the percussion bag.