Banjiman -

I think to try and assert that people take more care over trad songs than others is well, tosh, quite frankly!

Yes, and that's not what I meant to say. On reflection, I've also been to singer/songwriter sessions where the atmosphere was like a hiring fair (to borrow from another thread) - an MC who not only gigs regularly but sells CDs, a couple of lesser names further down the bill, and if you're not a 'name' you work very hard & just hope you don't let yourself down.

I think it comes down to regulars having high expectations - people know what they've come for, and they've come to hear something almost as good as X. Whether X is Bob Copper or Roy Harper (or Robin Williamson or Jez Lowe or...) is secondary. I think that standards slip - or go out the window - at "come along and have a go" sessions; if the stylistic expectations are wide open, the quality expectations tend to be too.

On the other hand, I don't want to get this out of proportion. I've had some very, very good nights at sessions with a wide range of material and an even wider range of abilities; I myself have got up in front of a folk club audience and done songs by Robyn Hitchcock Peter Blegvad Ivor Cutler Terry Jones And Many More. Clubs where anyone can do anything they want, to whatever standard they feel like, are basically a good thing.

But (on the third hand), I do think clubs with definite expectations are a better thing. If I was starting a session now I'd advertise it as "mostly (but not exclusively) traditional". (Fortunately, I don't need to.)