Ian Anderson said above: And I can only echo others: if all those proper grownup mass-circulation publications say they're the bees knees, why care what little fRoots or S***lines thinks?

Perhaps I'm being cynical, but could it be because so far they can't get arrested anywhere else? Maybe their manager thinks that the media fashionable folk scene will be a soft touch launch pad from which to propel them to fame and fortune? When the most high profile folk event to the general public is Cambridge Folk Festival who regularly book rock artists and American 'heritage acts', and who then get all the TV coverage, there's little surprise that uninformed managers start to see dollar signs.