Dr John: You really are limiting your musical experiences if you won't listen to things in languages you don't understand. But in any case most of the Welsh performers perform a fair bit of material in English (not unlike the Scots and Irish there . . ) Though you might have pointed out that the Welsh don't belong in a discussion of English folk music! Also - fine though the performers you recommend are, they do lean heavily towards the "traditional" interpreters of traditional material and certainly don't represent the breadth of the English part of the folk scene. Personally I'd complement them with June Tabor, Martin Simpson (in UK-tour mode!), Chris Wood and Andy Cutting, Tantika, Martin Carthy and Dave Swarbrick (as a duo), Roy Bailey, Pete Coe, Robb Johnson . .

On the other hand if I replied tomorrow I'd probably come up with a very different list . .

But - as I tried to suggest before - it does seem to me that WITHIN the UK and from a listening perspective very few people distinguish strongly between the music from the different parts of these (partially) British Isles.

And selby I think your workshop leader was just being provocative!

G.