I find it very enlightning to have:
"singing in tune, remembering and understanding the words, showing some understanding of the meaning of the songs" (the basics for anybody who sings in public I would have thought) - described as exacting.
On the other hand we have:
"If I had a guitar, a mate with an acoustic bass and another with a bodhran and and we played goth and punk that would be OK too?
And if I then sang out of key and it was pretty obvious that the guitarist knew one chord, the bass player hadn't ever played before and the bodhran player had no sense of rhythm, (not unusual in my experience of bodhran players) that would be OK too?
If I then said we came to the folk club because no-one else would let us play anywhere in Sussex and its environs because we were so awful - would you let us back next week?" -
all of which is apparently acceptable.
I think Les has his question answered!
If these are the values that todays club scene is peddling, I'm extremely glad to be out of it.
Who do I reckon? - happy to provide a list, top of which would probably be Kevin Michell John Lyons and Len Graham though Ireland can come up with many more who can sing in tune, remember the words and who enjoy, respect and understand the songs they sing.
If you can't rise above the somewhat pathetic standards some of you appear to have set yourselves, English folksong will survive only in libraries, archives and record shelves; probably the safest places for it.
Jim Carroll