I suppose its all a matter of temperament.

I remember the first time I saw Derek Brimmstone. I loved many of the songs he sang, and the artists who sang them - Dylan, Broonzy, Jackson C. frank, Jeremy Taylor, Joni Mitchell, Reverend Gary Davis, etc.

However I was 18 years old. I thought him telling jokes and tall stories between songs was disrespectful to the material and the serious business of folk music. I wasn't impressed.

Itwas about six years later I was walking through
the streets of Tamworth and I saw a pub with a sign in the window - saying Brimstone was appearing there that very night.

Suddenly I understood that his approach had enabled him to sing great songs for a living - whilst I had been working at a shit job.

Later, when I got to know Brimstone well. I found out that Derek's way of going about his job was very serious and involved a lot of guts and hard work. And compared to the glum bum reading a ballad from an exercise book who regarded himself as the soul of the tradition, I think there was a a greater amount of determined earnestness in Brimmo's approach.