Is Dave Eyre a traditional singer? Well sort of, yes, probably. In the same way as the Young Coppers are. They sing stuff from the family songbook when they feel like it but it's not a big deal. I learned songs, tunes and dances from trad musicians when at school in Newcastle though I didn't know that was what they were, but back home at my grandfather's in North Yorkshire it was more blurred. He'd played for his local morris side before World War I but when he returned there were no longer enough dancers to make a side. Or a cricket team, for that matter. He remembered the tunes and played them sometimes, though much to the ridicule of the rest of the family. It just wasn't 'fashionable' in the 1950s. This side has recently been revived and they have some of his tunes. Is this traditional? It's a grey area.

Bob Davenport has this story of a Peter Kennedy broadcast featuring a folklore academic who knew the exact date and time when hammer dulcimer playing had died out in these islands. Strange, since Bob had seen one down at Hoxton market that very morning. There are still pockets throughout the land where, when you least expect it, evidence that a tradition still survives will emerge.

A traveller in a Lincolnshire pub may have some as yet undiscovered gems, or he may not. If he makes the Kenny Rogers songs his own, perhaps he'll pass them on orally, or maybe not. Simon Ritchie of the Posh Band is a musician who really does embrace the music of the day and make it into the music of the people. He can do Leonard Cohen, Jimmy Cliff, Bob Dylan, Smokey Robinson, Sex Pistols and the Searchers alongside trad material in a pub with all sorts of racket going on and gain people's attention as he stepdances on the table. A true star who never self-promotes.