I would be interested to learn how running a club to present the music you like and believe to be important enough to make an effort for can possibly be described as cliquish or snobbery. Why should we be expected to present a 'wide variety' of music? Do we expect, say, a jazz club to present anything other than jazz; if I attend a disco (god help me), would it be reasonable for me to expect Country and Western?
If we make the running of clubs an object in themselves I believe we have really dropped the ball.
My point remains - what are we involved in the music for?
My reasons are based on the purely selfish notion of continuing to get the enormous pleasure I got, and still get from hearing a good traditional song well sung. While I might enjoy listening to a Mozart trio, or Anita O'day singing 'Tea For Two', there is nothing like Sheila Stewart singing 'Tiftie's Annie' or Mary Delaney's 'Buried in Kilkenny' or Walter Pardon's rendition of 'Broomfield Hill' to set the hairs on the back of my neck bristling. I would love to think that people are getting the same buzz long after I'm doing my bit to produce feed for the local livestock.
We have been visiting this part of the West of Ireland for over 30 years and up to 15 of those, I would have said with confidence that traditional Irish music was on its last gasp. It was in the hands of a few stubborn old gits like Junior Crehan who, despite the trends, insisted on playing what was contemptuously referred to by the media as 'diddly-di-music'. Now the music has blossomed. Last St Patrick's Day saw around 50 youngsters in this (small) town out on the parade playing flutes, fiddles, pipes, concertinas, whistles, melodeons - and playing them well. Thanks to the efforts of Junior (now dead) and a handful of dedicated people who bucked the trend, kept the old styles alive and took time out to pass on the music to younger people, it is safe for at least another couple of generations. This certainly didn't happen by watering it down to make it 'presentable'.
Maybe it would help those who have no interest in traditional music if they re-named their particular brand as 'accoustic' - interesting thought; though I suspect that in next to no time somebody who wanted to play their electronic keyboard or amplified fiddle would be labelling the organisers as 'finger-in-ear', 'purist', or 'accoustic police'.
Jim Carroll