quote: TonyA does - he was saying the reason we should listen to her is because she's folk.

Members with better reading skills will note that I've never said that "she's folk" (nor that she's "not folk"), and that my linguistic habits don't tend toward statements of that nature. I've tried to clarify all this twice before, but Jack keeps arguing against it anyway. If he were to argue against the point I actually made he would sound very silly, and perhaps he can't bear the prospect of life without argument. I'm reminded of a Monty Python sketch in which a man pays a fee to have an argument with a professional.

And I didn't say that anyone else should listen to her. I only said that I love her singing. That's a gut reaction and it has nothing to do with the question of whether "she's folk," whatever that means. I also love the violin solo albums of Gidon Kremer, and I think most people would say, if pressed, that he's "not folk."

It's futile to try to say whether anyone or anything "is folk." Should I try, fifty thousand drinking men shall rise to disagree with me. That fact itself might explain why Vashti Bunyan, or anyone else, might want to reject the label of folk singer.