No-one "blew" anything. Even it's supposed heyday folk was always a minority interest, be it dance, music or song. Today the Seth Lakemans and Kate Rusbys of this world are still a minority interest. So is jazz, classical music, heavy metal, goth metal et al. At the Hawkwind Festival there were punters aged 1 to 80, at any Folk Festival the range is about the same. There are young talented musicians out there, not all playing in clubs but making music, probably more than there have been for many years. Very few will make a living from it, but how many from the "good old days" did either?

Good music or spectacle (morris dancers rule OK) will find an audience, it may not be the way things were (craftworkers don't do general markets or busk, I make my living doing both) but that's the way things change. Coffee bars don't have folksingers now, pubs do, life moves on and so does the music.

Adding to the tradition, writing songs that reflect lost ways of life are fine, don't make it folk and don't make it a living and you'll only know if you added to the tradition long after you're gone.

In the long run making a living depends on ability, guts, perseverance, business sense and a lot of good luck. You can survive for a while with one of these missing but in the long road you need them all. Maybe birth or a degree helps for a while but it's a long time to your pension.

There is also a BIG difference between a hobby and a living, folk music is my hobby, it don't matter if I can't go to a session because of flooding, my craft is my living, it matters that I can't work because my workshop is flooded.

My last comment for Stacey is a piece of advice given to Slade by Staus Quo (but not original) "Be nice to people on the way up because you'll meet them again on the way down"

All the best

Steve Ogden