well in answer to Nick - i think the answer is in the way we disseminate our history.

theres a sort of museum of fishing in Yarmouth - no mention of Sam Larner in it. none of the songs.

You could go to Brigg in Lincolnshire and never see any mention of Joseph Taylor.

we really need to raise the consciousness of folksong. people should know their local songs, and make it part of the pride we have in where we come from.

i also think, the hatred of people like the spinners, the corries, the yetties who tried to make folk songs understandable to the man in the street has been counterproductive. I love the way American folksingers don't seem to have to strain to sound 'ethnic' in the way that our revivalists do. its not edgy, or clever - its bloody dull conformity to an aesthetic that dispossesses the working classes of their heritage.