I hate to do this - I want to enthuse, I really, really do! But last night's programme was a disaster - a complete shambles! Where were the folk songs, for a start? Lots of drippy women singing pathetic mush - lots of them sounded like they were down a well singing to their own bottoms! And some of the performances were awful - the sorts of performances that could give the worst club floor singers a good name.
The biggest waste of talent was Eliza Carthy. While Billy 'Mr Folk Music' Bragg hogged last week's show, British Folk Music's brightest hope hardly got a look in. What we did get to hear of Ms Carthy just went to show that women folk singers don't have to be fey, wispy things singing fey, wispy songs whilst hiding behind their own hair.
To be fair, Eliza's Mum doesn't fit the stereotype either but she did seem desperate to avoid singing anything resembling a folk song ...