Diane seems determined to misunderstand and mischaracterize what I say. Too bad.

I never said America had the same kind of club scene as Britain. I said there wouldn't have been such a scene in Britain without American influence. This is because the Carthys, Killens, etc., who sang at the clubs wouldn't have been singing folk songs. These musicians were inspired by American music, or by Brits singing American songs (like Lonnie Donegan) and then turned to their own tradition.   This is confirmed by my own conversations with Carthy, Killen (and also Ashley Hutchings, Maddy Prior, Alan Reid, Andy Irvine, and many others I've spoken to over the years).

It's also well documented elsewhere, and non-controversial, and was noted by such early revival historians as Fred Woods in 1979. Woods, in Folk Revival, p. 54, writes of the folk clubs, "the repertoire was initially transatlantic, and derived from songwriters such as Leadbelly, Big Bill Broonzy, Uncle Dave Macon, and Woody Guthrie, and American folksongs." He also describes folk groups like the Kingston Trio and Peter Paul and Mary as "the main inspiration to the up-and-coming revivalist singers."

In Ailie Munro's admirable book about the folksong revival in Scotland, she calls the second chapter "The Story of the Revival: Beginnings in the USA." She begins with two quotes, from Andy Hunter and Robin Munro, both of whom say that the main material sung in Scottish folk clubs in the early 60s was American. Hunter says Jeannie Robertson complained about this.

Munro also points out that the precursor to the wartime and post-war radio shows that both Georgina and Diane cite was Alistair Cooke's brilliant radio series from 1938, I Hear America Singing, in which he presented American field recordings from the Library of Congress--in many cases, the first time they had been heard anywhere outside the Library. Munro quotes Hamish Henderson to the effect that they were the first field recordings most British audiences had ever heard. (She could have added to this Cooke's 1936 series, New York City to the Golden Gate, which he created for the BBC after his time in the US on scholarship, but before he emigrated in 1937.) Both of Cooke's shows were on the BBC, presented to British audiences, long before As I Roved Out or even Country Magazine.

It seems pointless for me to continue to justify what most historians of the second revival have been pointing out since the second revival itself. Diane will continue to argue that American influence was unimportant. The lady doth protest too much, methinks. A nerve has apparently been struck.

I do note one more time how political (indeed, romantic and nationalist) Diane's fierce defense of native British revivalism is, and point out once again that the whole idea of folk music is inextricably entwined with politics.