The Sycophantic Mollusc: You seem to think that all other folk clubs in the land conform to the description emanating from the fuddled brain of S O'P

Once again Mudcat talks break down when, not being able come up with anything constructive to say, posters feel the need resort to personal insults.

JC: It was me who couldn'd be arsed digging this piece of reactionary nonsense from a previous post.

Hardly reactionary, old man - long after the revival is dead and forgotten (about 15 years should do it) people are still going to value the Traditional Songs and the singers thereof.

JC: Absolutely right; but when I look at S O'Ps shopping list of what passes for folk in some/many of todays clubs I am left with the impression that this is very much on the wan too - please prove me wrong - please.

This presumably being people trying to write songs in the Traditional Idiom, which is, at best, a revival conceit and in no way produces songs in any way worthy of being called Traditional. I work with song writers with a canny knack for the craft, but are these really folk songs in the same sense as the traditional songs? I say most definitely not, even though I have happily roared out many a Graham Miles chorus and actively promote the singular genius of Ron Baxter, and revel in the song writing talents of Mike Waterson, Lal Waterson, Peter Bellamy and Bob Pegg and might even crack one off myself as the occasion demands. This is where mere Folk is different from Traditional; as different as Mr Higgins's scratch-built 00-scale model of the Flying Scotsman is different from the real thing; even as different as The Tornado is different from the real Peppercorn A1's from 1948; a fine sight it may be, but it is not 1948.

To confuse the two is to do a grave disservice to the traditional heritage and the marvels thereof; thus is born Fake Lore, and sadly Fake Song.