Ian:
"Or put it another way, go to a folk club and enjoy the experience for the spontaneous sport it is."
Perhaps you can explain something that others have been unable to.
Why is it not possible to do both - does understanding and taking a music seriously automatically prohibit somebody from actually enjoying it?
I have been involved in folk music for nearly fifty years, mainly as a listener and singer, but over the last thirty odd of those as a collector and researcher.
I write on the subject, talk on it, read about it, argue about it, issue CDs of our field recordings, archive it and am now preparing to publish a couple of books on Traveller songs and stories.
After all this time, Sheila Stewart singing 'Tifties Annie' still brings a lump to the throat and I can still fall out of my chair listening to Sam Larner sing 'Butter And Cheese And All'.
Do you think it's a genetic flaw - or what?
Jim Carroll