This morning I was up with the larks, not so much out with my gun in the dew glistening meadows o' May bathed in Phoebus's risen rays, but rather sitting in a succession of waiting rooms (how's that for a collective noun??) feeling utterly depressed. Anticipating this lack o' cheer, I took along my cherished CBC edition of Bob Copper's Song for Every Season & was, as ever, transported into what is, to me, a fantasy of a world I might only experience on a very remote level at several removes, the songs likewise. This is why when I think of those perfect rain-lashed and fire-lit nights in the backroom of the Colpitts in Durham, smoking Golden Virginia & quaffing Sam Smith's Old Brewery Bitter whilst being utterly enchanted by Ian McCulloch's masterful essaying of The Copper Family Song Book (I'm thinking of Admiral Benbow in particular here, which was mentioned in the passage I was reading earlier) I do so in terms of pure séance. In fact, I think of all Folk as a sort of séance; because it's certainly not real - it's invoked by a self-appointed cast of seasoned shamanic spirit-mediums (media?) who seek trance possession and holy communion in the singing of sacred canonical texts that only really have any meaning to the initiated.

This is the sort of fantasy world I'm talking about; a world that sure as hell ain't real, though it might appear to be real (i.e. collective, common, objective) but it only works because it is, in fact, entirely subjective. We create it, and we maintain it, in between times, in the real world, in goodly faith of our conviction and calling, and subsequent dedication to the craft of the Revival Folksong Singer, who must, like the Model Railway Enthusiast, lovingly tend their world in plastic miniature with all the exacting dedication demanded of their calling. Meanwhile, back in the real world, real trains and real living breathing popular music continue to whizz past. And whilst Battle Re-enactment Groups flourish - everything from Celts, Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Elizabethans, Roundheads, Border Reivers and WW2 Home Guards - I don't think the government will be sending any of them off to Afghanistan any time soon.

This is but one of several inherent dualities of Folk. Personally, I like to be aware of such things - yeah, even as a Folksong Singer & Enthusiast - and openly confess that it was the fantasy that suckered me into it in the first place and the fantasty that keeps me there unto this day. Imagination is a good thing, especially in the sort of world we inhabit today. Crikey - I might go completely insane otherwise - assuming, of course, I haven't already...