Interesting when you put it like that. Does it worry you that you're not English enough? Most of us find ourselves a bit discomfitted at how very English we are. We're virtually unintelligible to the rest of the world as it is.

Even a singer like Martin Carthy seems to incorporate bits of Romany and Irish style slides and grace notes into his singing and playing.

You sound like a candidate for this folk degree, where they sort out all this ethnography. I think for many of us - the wide bill of fare that English folk music encompasses is rather a plus. everything from the Geordies to the Devon and Cornwall gang and stopping at all stations in between.

And lets face it, the Scots and Irish use all our material - think of Bert Jansch and Christy Moore. They sing English songs. So what makes the Scottish and Irish stuff off limits to us?