last w/e at "Folk on the Water" - a boat gathering and folk festival I kept on asking where the session was. One guy pointed to a dip behind the towpath with a gazebo which on my way home I noticed amplifiers and a generator going that way. It was an ad hoc stage.

Another guy reckoned it was on the barge "Sabrina" Sun 8pm. The chalk board outside seemed to agree. Come Sunday it had metamorphosed to the Willow Theatre (under the Weeping Willow) and turned-out to be now called a folk club (aka SAR).

I found some noises finishing in the beer tent and asked where the session was and they pointed to the corner of the marquee. When I told him that was bar music/open stage he thought the concept of a stage was a bit of overstatement. Not so but modest or cramped would have been the best description of the platform (about 3 inches high).

As I always tell it and hear it, a session is short for a jam session in Jazz parlance. Playing ensemble with friends &/or strangers without any barrier. Oh Ok a few snotty rules when you look too closely - like NO BANJOS or "this is an English session" but fer gaudsake - if you can sidle in and play what is being played it is a session.

for the asking or by invite is a folk club or open stage. Paid performers are bar music.

Is the unwritten jargon of music devolving and me growing old and pernickety? Or is there logic out there that can override this sloppy thinking?