Could it be that the extent to which sessions protest their friendliness is a good measure of the extent to which they are in fact cliquey? Well maybe not always, but certainly sometimes. It takes a fair degree of nerve for even a moderate musician, on his or her own, to sit down at a session among total strangers. For a relative beginner, hoping to pick up the tunes by osmosis, it is an even greater challenge. This thread is a good illustration of what limited understanding certain sessioneers have of this simple fact.