I don't think the fact that Mike lives in Ireland has anything to do with the material selected. I don't live in America but I bet you at least half my record/CD collection is by American artists. The programme is an indication of a) what the general populace consider acceptable as folk music and b) what is available to the general populace in the larger stores. Judging by the line ups of the festivals this year, if the material were selected only from them, it would be a pretty boring and repetitious programme, more so than you think it is now.

I've seen Mike out "collecting" for the programme in Britain - the poor man had to carry the equipment himself - and he wasn't 'cherry picking', he was wandering around, getting a good sample of every sort of music that was available that day, in a small seaside town in Britain.   The fact that it included English folk song, traditional and contemporary, Bulgarian, Irish, Scottish, French and Australian just shows what an eclectic bunch of music makers we are.

LTS