I haven't been around as long as some of you, and I haven't been to as many folk clubs as many of you but I have been to a good selection of clubs, sessions, sing-arounds, etc.

I know there are exceptions but in my experience most of these include variety. Yes you usually have people providing traditional English, Scottish and Irish folk (and some of my stuff is too) but variety is what it's usually about. If I was visiting a club I hadn't attended before I would be reluctant to sing on the first visit but if I did I would first assess what other people were singing and not stray too far from it if I could.

At one set of the sessions I used to go to we would say to any newcomer "Can you sing, dance, recite a poem, juggle?" It's whatever gets people involved.

The only limitation is usually that it needs to be acoustic, though a chap did once turn up to a session with an electric guitar and that was OK too - as a one-off. There were strange looks but no one complained. If you can get people in you might just turn some of them to the music you like but if you don't, at least they're keeping it live.

I find it's a given that a folk club includes British folk songs and tunes, shanties, European folk, military songs, blues, Americana, humour / parody, singer-songwriter, classical guitar, monologue / poetry, and a few other outliers to make up the mix. Let it long be so, I say.