R2 presenter Don Maclean on Sunday read a letter from a listener complaining that he had said there was no English folk tradition, only Irish and Scots.
DM was very dismissive and off hand in his reply. He said that he only meant that English music and song was not "exported" to America as Irish and Scots was.
After all, he said, you never hear Greensleeves or A Lover And His Lass in the Nashville top ten.
I did send an E Mail to DM but I can not write with much knowledge about the history of folk here and over the water. Perhaps someone else could put him straight please.
Keith.