I have no idea what Diane's talking about. I never said the UK second folk revival barely happened. I said it wouldn't have happened to anything near the extent that it did, and wouldn't have developed a club singing scene, without American influences. She seems to be supporting me by pointing out how central Peggy Seeger was in this. Thanks, Diane!

Her question about PSB (sic) radio is irrelevant, and also ignorant. Irrelevant because I wasn't saying that the US is more supportive of folk music than the UK, as her attempt to compare the radio shows in our two countries suggests. I don't know if one is more supportive than the other, and don't much care, really. I hope both countries get MORE supportive!

As for radio, in the US we don't have a national radio service comparable to the BBC. For folk music, as for other genres, you can go to many local stations in many places all over the US. Nationally, we have producers like American Public Media, which does things like "A Prairie Home Companion," NPR, which carries "World Cafe," "Thistle and Shamrock," etc. while these are mixed bag shows, they often have folk or roots music in excess of an hour a week. On Satellite Radio, we have American Routes, as well as whole station of folk music, XM 15 the Village, hosted by my friend Mary Sue Twohy, which is carrying a special by me this month, by the way! (In many US cities, there is also an array of both African and Latin roots music programming, if you know where to look.) The amount of folk music on radio is dwindling here, as thoughtful radio becomes more about talk and popular radio becomes more and more aural wallpaper for people to leave on while doing other things. The same is true of many other genres, alas! I expect the same is happening in Britain.