Ah, Shimrod. I'd never have guessed ;-)

Actually, this 90-song publication is an EFDSS co-production and is very well done - as an entry-level songbook.

It is nevertheless true that English trad has been trivialised and ridiculed, certainly by the mainstream education system, throughout the last two generations, as well as being culturally vandalised by the equally mainstream musbiz.

However, what has been misrepresented can be redeemed. So much work has been put in by English musicians in schools and among people working close to their landscapes who still have a sense of place. Traditions are being respected but conventions broken. English music is still there and growing apace as people are adding to and broadening it. England is joining 'the world'.

So I shouldn't worry too much. Events will happen which some choose to call 'f*lk'. If they mean mostly MOR snigger-snoggers and new-agey tripe, so what? What's good (if anything) will survive and the rest will fall by the wayside. Just as has always happened.