Big Al: 'But my feeling is that 'the tradition' - if there is one, it is more spiritual than anything.'

Not for me, Al, nor any trad. musician I've ever met. It's a particular style of music ands lyric that doesn't sound like contemporary folk (or blues, or jazz, or pop), and those who enjoy it can get passionate about it. Nothing spiritual about it, though. I accept that some traddies in the past have been passionate to the point of intolerance but at the same time I can remember intolerant contemporary club organisers who would refuse point-blank to book what they called 'all-that-finger-in-the-ear-stuff'.

You do have a point though, Al, about singing styles on the tradfolk scene during the 1970s, a subject about which I've researched and written. The topic of 'mannerism' was debated vigorously in the folk press of the time, and pretty much every leading artist was accused of it at some point. Some of it did get a bit abstruse and weird. I once interviewed Will Noble - a singer who learned his songs traditionally and is notably free of folkie mannerisms - and asked him what he thought of the singing style in the 'folk scene'. Like the gentleman he is, he replied: 'a lot of them sang in a "different" way, shall we say... I suppose people were trying to get back to a way of life that they thought was around when this singing was going on.' I'm sure that 60s and 70s revival singers were actively experimenting with vocal styles, in search of an elusive 'authenticity'. It wasn't always successful...

I quite agree with what Howard said about finding the right repertoire/style for the right environment, and what Dave said about all the other factors that have caused a reduction in numbers.