Jim Carroll

we don't all live in Lewes

We don't all live in Miltown Malbay either. I do live in the UKwhere I regularly got to two traditional clubs nad occasionally go to others. I meet people who go to and perform at other traditional clubs all over the country. I go to festivals where I hear more traditional music.

I am sure there are clubs where you can hear nothing but Beatles songs and teenage angst singer songwriters and Dylan wannabees band even, for all I know, Ziggy Stardust. I don't go to them because there is plenty that I want to hear elsewhere. You extrapolate from tiny scraps of evidence, some of it from Mudcat, some of it from the time 20 or 30 years ago when you were involved in running clubs and some from your rare visits to UK clubs to declare ALL folk clubs moribund and to slag off those of us who are trying to promote precisely the sort of music you admire.

So my partial answer to Dick's original question is that we should start trying to believe in and appreciate what we've got.

Merry Christmas. Try a bit of goodwill.