Years ago I took a Melbourne friend of mine to the Numeralla FF for the Australia Day weekend. She was a potter with, I found out that weekend, a habit of sliding into the background with a sketchbook and pencils. She disappeared for the day and, when I asked her what she'd seen and done while elsewhere in the festival, she told me she'd been sketching people.

"Their faces are wonderful," she said. "They all look so ... lived in!"

About the most astute observation of folkies I've come across. And quite a few had facial hair.

Cheers, Rowan.