There was this woman who had a daughter. The girl was pretty enough with brown hair and brown eyes. But:her mother didn't like the fact that other people thought her child unremarkable so, with the very best intentions she entered the girl in a local beauty contest. Before long the little girl was appearing in pageants and advertising campaigns. Of course by this stage her hair was blonde and she wore blue contact lenses as well as expertly applied make-up. She was dressed, her mother's misguided decision, in adult style clothes best described as 'sexy' - all for the best possible reasons, to make her more acceptable to even more people.
Over time the girl became more and more loved by greater numbers of people. As she entered her mid teens she moved in with her friends and acquaintances and lost touch with her mother. Ten years later the girl and her mother met again. They didn't recognise each other. Whatever the mother had loved originally in her child was gone, along with the innocence and the essence of childhood that had made the little girl so special in her mothers eyes.
Sad story isn't it?
It appears to me that there are people who love folk music, who believe that it deserves a wider audience, that it deserves to be 'recognised' as being 'equal to' all other musics. These people don't actually like folk music as it is, domestic, homely and unremarkable to all but those who understand it and its context. They like the big act. Given a choice between listening to Harry Cox in the woodshed or Bellowhead on the South Bank, they will inevitably be drawn toward the bright lights.
This award is, in my opinion, a bad thing. Not because of itself but because, to give it to an individual, is to water down the value it might have better invested in real 'grass roots' folk music. I feel similarly about the 'folk awards'. It isn't that people don't care and I don't believe it's entirely due to commercial interests. I think the folk scene needs to give serious thought to the notion of 'artist development' because the cult of the headline act will eventually bleed a very small pot dry. The 'Folk Industry' is not uncaring but may be a misguided parent like the mother in the story above.