No, no isult to anybody specific intended.

However the whole English folkscene has always struck me as a bit like the English 1890's literary scene.

The big hitters of that scene were people like RL Stevenson, Wilde, the great poems were stuff like the Highwayman by Noyes.

Just as Steveenson and Noyes wrote about Highwaymen and Pirates in an age of steam trains, electricity, movie photography and even early aeroplanes. So we are stuck with a folkscene that concentrates on pre 1914 values in music, language forms, etc.- even subject matter for songs.

Literature of course had TS Eliot come from Amrica and kick over the establishment and revitalise the language. AnD perhaps more importantly, we had literary critics like Leavis, IA Richards, Wilson Knight who knew that the lights had changed.

Its never really happened in England to the folk music scene. Well we got some of the artists, but there was no widespread recognition that a folk culture is the language of the streets of today - certainly it didn't permeate to kind of people who get their perceptions of folk music published.

So much easier to reiterate the latest record company blurb about world music - than go down to your local folk club and see and hear for yourself what's going on.