Declan, I can sympathise with your point of view and know many
musicians who share it. I love good fiddle playing, for example, and
don't think a really good Irish fiddler needs any accompaniment.

There has always been snobbery among musicians (of all ilks)--they
have the artistic temperament after all, and the same could be said of any branch of the arts.
Very often it's just tuppence
ha'penny looking down at tuppence, or cronyism. Part of human
nature, really, and will always be around.

But music IS entertainment, and the older I get the more I tend to
sympathise with those who want to participate (listening, playing or singing),
and so what if it means playing the Kesh for the umpteenth time,
or a few songs get sung--it's not going to signal the end of traditional music, is it?

I find it sad when enthusiastic non-musicians come to a session
(usually tunes-only), looking for some entertainment, and are bored
silly after half an hour and leave never to return, because the musicians
are wrapped up in their own tunes or banter and take no notice whatsover of their audience.
I've been asked to come to join in some of these, but only if I take my mandolin and leave the guitar at home
(a guitar means--shock, horror!--that someone might sing a song!). So I don't go.

Last year I sang a song (in Irish) in the Cobblestone and was almost
lynched by the musicians present. The punters loved it and wanted more,
but the scathing looks from the musicians prevented it.
I never went back to that particular session. Silly, isn't it?