The thing about 'sharp practice' and 'con' artists is that they are motivated by a deaire to make money.

I can honestly say that I cannot think of one club organiser who is motivated by financial gain. Really ...not one.

Folk music of the kind that you value has not fallen into my hands. I've never been a fan but I've recognised some of its strengths. However it has nothing for me as a singer/songwriter.

However many folk based music forms - blues; jazz; country music; poets like Noyes, Auden, Coleridge who use the ballade form; music hall artists; ragtime guitarists; have influenced the synthesis that I arrived at and which generally a modern audience can relate to.

The essential problem about your variety of folk music is that a lot of modern audiences cannot relate to it. There are artists who try to interpret traditional folk music to audiences and I respect that, but I'm not sure that you do.

I think anyone who tries to make that interface with a contemporary folk audience has respect when they see it being done with skill and sensitivity. They have come through the destructive civil war of traddy versus contemporary that emptied the folk clubs, and there has been a realisation that we are all folk. We have a common aim.

Catch up.