I'm pleased that most people on this thread seem to share my suspicion of "originality" as something to aim for in its own right, rather than emerging in the course of aiming for something else.

I'm not surprised, given that it's folk music - however that is understood - that brings us together. However I've noticed that often enough, in reviews in folk magazines (when I bother to read them), there is much the same focus on originality and keeping ahead of the game that you get in other types of music.

It even applies to varieties of music as well as to performers - one time it's going to be Cajun music that is the sound, then it switches to Argentinian tangoes, then it's neo-skiffle or Moroccan drumming... And what comes across is not so much a widening of tastes and a growth of recognition of the different musics of the world (which is very umuch to be welcomed), its a restless moving on, which involves the junking of last years favourites. Novelty (and "originality" of performers) becomes the criterion of value, and lack of novelty is the unforgiveable sin.