For ten years I was involved in the running of the very successful South Tyne Folk and Blues where unaccompanied ballads and twelve bar blues stood shoulder to shoulder perfectly integrated. On a typical evening it would not be uncommon to hear songs gleaned from the repertoires of Bukka White, Harry Cox and Roy Harper appreciated equally by the audience. In fact the only time I heard our unaccompanied singers derided was by a no-hope, wanabee guitarist who was so bad we had to tell this person no more floor spots. Over the last forty plus years I have never felt that there is any snobbery attached to unaccompanied singing although I have heard stories circulating, mainly untrue, that certain traditionally based clubs(Nottingham Traditional Music Club suffered from this one) have barred any form of instrumentation, yet I have also seen advertisments for folk clubs declaring "floor singers with guitars welcome". These days as part of Traditions at the Tiger all four of our residents sing unaccompanied; no snobbery and nothing to do with it being "more traditional" we'd love to see more instrumentalists there.