I was half listening to Newstalk (Irish radio station) last week as I was working around the house when some musical person (a reviewer, or something like that--he sounded English) was being interviewed about the development of Irish trad music. He lauded the usual individuals and groups like the Chieftains, Planxty and so on and then eventually came up to the present day when he referred to certain contemporary trad musicians as "sad old men with beards singing Monto in a pub somewhere" (I think those were his exact words). I did think this was derogatory. It almost describes some of the gang I play with every week, but they are anything but sad!