Surreysinger: "As Ralphie said, things on this side of the pond are working nicely ... evolving in whatever manner the younger element of the folk movement sees fit, and as they always have done."

Yes, yes. I didn't intend to dismiss the 'new revival' or however people prefer to identify what's going on now with the twenty-sumthing trad. folkies who have arisen in the wake of the relative *commercial* successes of certain key figures in the current folk revival music scene.

As Surreysinger says, new people on the block, new interpretations happening all over the shop. Including Jim Moray's rap version of Lucy Wan. Of course rap, as musical art, is as much of a home-made community tradition as any folk art can be..

As a side note, Rap first appeared as a distinct cultural phenomenon during the late Seventies, while around the same time the hippies (with their free music festivals) were in the process of becoming yet another cultural anacronism.. ;-)