I quite liked their "Songs From St Margarets" mini-album on Manchester micro-label The Red Deer Club. A bit tame and mannered for my taste and not an album that left me wanting more, but am ok release none-the-less. I can see why some people would enjoy it.

Now, The Red Deer Club was a "nu-folk" label (though I doubt founder Dunk Le Chunk ever used that term) well before the label became popularised by the relentless rise of the Mumfords. RDC has released some good albums. The thing is, their output is only "folk" in the broadest sense of the word, in so far as that loose scene of largely acoustic groups and singer-songwriters attracted a "folk" tag in the absence of any better way of describing it. And in the sense that "folk" is used in the wider media as a catch-all marketing term for all sorts of acoustic music. Personally I don't have a huge problem with this, in that "folk" has long been a debased term that can mean anything the music industry wants it to mean. Citing the 1954 definition to support the notion that the Moulettes (or anyone else for that matter) are not "folk" is the last feeble grasp at a very decomposed straw. The stable door was opened long ago and the singing horse has bolted.

Personally (and notwithstanding the above) I wouldn't describe the Moulettes as "folk" - and I have a fairly undogmatic view about these things (when the UK folk scene has a decades-long tradition of admitting singing "comedians" with irritatingly unfunny songs, they're not exactly in the best position to make lofty "folk"/"not-folk" declarations). If the Moulettes or their manager want to categorise themselves as "folk", that's entirely up to them. But to then come on Mudcat pissing and moaning because fRoots and Songlines won't give them a review is a bit rich. fRoots will sometimes step outside of its core remit if it thinks the record in question is good enough to warrant it, but that's the exception rather than the rule. And as in all the things, including Reg Meuross's ridiculous fit of petulance referenced above, these publications do not owe these artists anything (no-one has a right to a review) and most importantly the editor's decision is final*. And thank god for that. Otherwise fRoots would be stuffed with reviews of every half-arsed singer-songwriter whose marketing people have attached the term "folk" to them imaginable and I'd have to cancel my subscription before I lost the will to live...

* If I was the fRoots or Songlines editor and someone posted their complaints about my not reviewing them on an internet forum, future press releases and promos would be filed in a very special place...