Dianavan: Sure it counts. A sprinkling of Indonesian sounds truly delightful.   Send photograph and CV.

But it in all seriousness, the point I was trying to make was that very few of the contributors to this thread have not been talking about ethnicity, which, if it means anything at all, refers to cultural background. The fact that I was born in London of a fairly long line of Londoners is (as I said before) a matter of address, rather than ethnicity. And the fact that someone was born in Belfast, is now living in Boston and came to folk music through skiffle tells me next to nothing about them - certainly nothing about their ethnicity.

i wouldn't want to follow my own line of argument too far. It can too easily end up with silly arguments about who is ethnically qualified to sing certain songs or play particular instruments. Nevertheless, I still find it interesting that one kind of music- the blues - that gives pleasure to many Mudcatters and which has an undeniably powerful set of cultural backgrounds (not all black) might have been expected to flush out at least one response from an African American. This thread has, to my surprise, failed to do it.

I return to my original question. Why is the Mudcat forum so pale in complexion?