I think its nice for people who like to study the entrails and lift a finger and see which way the prevailing wind blows and guess at where it came from.

But for most of us - it happens at a visceral level. It has always seemed to me that a song like Flash Company could have been part of Johnny Cash or Jim Reeves's repertoire. We want look our neighbours and friends and family in the eye - sing a song for them, write a song, be understood, and for them to be attracted to what we do.

American country music has been part of the warp and weft and in the consciousness of what people in the Britsh Isles have listened to for a very long time. Longer than any of us have been alive.

Small wonder that The Beatles, the most popular band of the last century made country music a huge element in their appeal.

Folk and American country music - the two genres are bound together very tightly - and they have great areas of confluence.