This is such a sad reflection on modern concert audiences. Been there and got the T-shirt several times. A couple of years ago the Waterson (Family / Carthy - can't remember what configuration) came to the Early Music Centre in York. Come chorus song time Norma says "Please join in". Some 8 - 10 of us - old buddies from the Lowther Hotel Folk Club 30 years ago - did just that. You could cut the sneering stares from the very silent majority with a knife! Encouraged by Norma's arm waving we carried on.

As recently as last Sunday at a Kate Rusby concert in York the audience were invited to join in many of the songs / choruses. Very few did so.

Although folk music is a participative thing, there is sometimes a wrong time to join in audibly. But if we start to say never join in, and widen the distance between singer and audience, then IMHO we have lost it. Kate and Norma instinctively seem to recognise this. But perhaps they are singers first, performers second.

Bill