Granted, o noble gastropod, one should indeed pick one's arguments. Being a Yank, I'm not totally familiar with what's going on in the U.K. folk scene, but I shall try to educate myself in that regard.

My objection to WAV's blather is his racist and exclusionary attitude, which I would speak out against in any case, and his patently asinine prescriptions and proscriptions about English folk music, enunciating principles that he obviously feels should be applied to all folk music, and to cultures in general. He seems to embrace the idea that one should only sing songs of one's own limited locality, and I cavil at this. I reserve the right to sing any song I damn well want to sing, regardless of what culture it comes from; and anyone who tells me—or others—what they should or should not, can or cannot sing is going to get an argument from me.

Any logical argument that I assert will, I'm sure (after all this), be lost on WAV. But as I said, it's for the benefit of any neophyte who may be misled by him

Just as a note:   one value of this thread (even if it involves giving a sadly ignorant self-appointed pundit far more attention than he deserves) is that, being somewhat less familiar with the U.K. folk scene and singers than I would want to be, it spurred me to look up Eliza Carthy (with whom I was not familiar) on YouTube and hear her sing. Excellent! It has led me to a pleasant discovery.

Now, WAV:

According to you, "English style" guitar playing ". . . would be including the melody in one's picking. . . ."

This still does not distinguish a unique "English style" guitar. Segovia played melodies on the guitar. So does Pepe Romero. Charlie Byrd (American jazz guitarist) did too. John Prine does. Elizabeth Cotton did. Grammy winning African guitarist Ali Farka Touré plays melody lines. My friend Bob Nelson does. So does local folk guitar virtuoso George Austin. So do I.

So—what distinguishes "English style" guitar playing? I have a fairly sophisticated ear. How do I recognize "English style" guitar playing when I hear it, as contrasted with, say, John Prine's or George Austin's playing?

Don Firth