Well I don't like all of what they do, but I think that the sheer venom they get from a lot of the "folk world" is unjustified.

I agree with the posts above that say they will inspire youngsters to get into acoustic-y music. Indeed, I know a couple who've already been inspired.

One of the first songs that I played, in a "scratch band" at a climbing club meet in 2009, was "Little Lion Man", learned from a YouTube clip before they'd even officially released it. Yes, it's fairly basic, but it went down an absolute storm with the (predominantly young) audience of climbers, who'd never heard of the band at that time.

I despair when I go to singarounds where there's *nobody* under 50 present, but everyone's sitting there smug in their complacency, while I know that in the same own there are at least a dozen young bands or artistes playing/ singing "folky" stuff but who won't go along to these events because they're worried that they'll be "put down" by the "cogniscenti" as "not being folky enough".

At least there's something a bit fresh there, even if it's pushing at the boundaries of the "folk" label...it sometimes gets a bit "old" listening to "Brighton Camp" played by massed melodeons for the 7th time that month! Maybe I'm not cut out for this "folk" stuff and should crawl back under my "indie rock" stone :-)

Labels, labels.........