Sorry about that last post. It got posted as a short draft.

I meant to post this......

Let's take a look at this well written piece of journalism.

It quotes how the folk world is constantly getting its knickers in a twist. The example quoted is 42 years old.

It says the latest controversy is about when is traditional song not a traditional song. It isn't and it has constantly been repeated ad nauseam that it isn't.

It describes Seth Lakeman as a young crossover star. Well if you think 29 is young I suppose he is.

He fails to point out that there is a BBC Folk Awards definition of the category of best traditional track and "White Hare" does not fall into it.

He says the row "was triggered by last week's BBC Folk Awards". It was started months earlier as he himself admits in the next paragraph but two.

John Leonard's definition of s traditional song as "a song of no known composer that has passed through many hands" is not particularly good but it certainly does not fit the "White Hare" which is a song whose words have a known composer. We don't know anything about the tune.

He fails to point out that Seth Lakeman singing "King and Country" wouldn't have qualified either.

Nic Jones's description of the oral process is good as it goes. How many times has Seth changed "White Hare" in the same way? Suppose he did and the words changed each time he sang it so that in the end it became unrecognisable as the original song. Do you imagine the record company would like that?

In the end none of it matters.

Compare and contrast with the description on the BBC Folk Awards Page

The BBC Folk Awards event was started in 1999 as a way of celebrating the past year's achievements in the folk music world. It was seen as an opportunity to get artists and folk industry pundits together and say thank you for their work over the previous twelve months. It was also seen as a chance to showcase to the mainstream media just some of the artists and albums that we, the people who work in folk music, have been particularly proud of during the year.

Well-written article by Colin "Dave Swarbrick is dead" Irwin?   Sure?

But I am an open minded person. Tell us why you think it is well-written.