I just wanted to come back on the opposition suggested by Spleen between submitting to the raw experience and caring about the labels. I think it's a false opposition - it's the raw experience that made me care about the labels.

The first time I heard really excellent singing - the kind of thing that stops you dead & makes you think maybe if I really work on it I could be a tenth as good as that - it was in a traditional session. The first time I heard a song and wanted to learn it right there and then, so that I could take some of that experience away with me - it was in a traditional session. The first time I was swept away by voices doing something more powerful and complex than I'd ever known voices could do - a bit like a Bach organ piece, but heard from inside the organ - it was in a traditional session. The first time I was so caught up in the music that it scared me (the music was so loud, and it went on and on), it was... well, you get the idea.

That's why I get arsey about classification - because the gulf between that experience and what I'd been doing down at the Folk Club (viz. splashing about in a pool of well-intentioned mixed-ability strumming) is... well, it's not even funny.