Hi Dick (Snell, that is),
Wonderful to hear from you again - more later - I hope.
I have to say that I was never part of the personality differences of the group, though I am all too aware of them and the effects on its work.
As far as I'm concerned, my period in the Critics Group, as short as it was, influenced my attitude to folk music to such an extent that it has left its fingerprints over virtually everything Pat and I have done since.
Dick (Miles - that is);
I'm not sure of your motive for bringing up Wallis's review of 'Around The Hills of Clare' - not that I have any problems with it; I've always been happy to discuss it with anybody interested.
Those wishing to judge for themselves the rights and wrongs of what is, for me, one of the most distasteful experiences I have encountered in all the time I have been involved in folk music, is free to do so - the review is still to be found on the Musical Traditions web-site (though I can't help but notice that the cause of all the trouble - the Elizabeth Crotty review, has mysteriously disappeared into cyberspace).
Whether the 'reviewer's' hatchet job of our notes was justified or not, is there for all to make up their own minds. But the fact that thoughout what was the longest review I have ever come across, of a forty track double CD featuring nearly 20 performers, totally failed to discuss either the singers, the singing or the songs included - says all that needs to be said about the motives of the reviewer.
It is enough to know that 'Hills' ranks with the most successful album of field singers produced.
Now - what do you want to know?
Jim Carroll