I would largely agree with GeorgeH's assertion that the situations in which traditional music is performed are mainly parts of the revival - certainly folk clubs, festivals and concerts can be considered in this category.

The pub music session is one place where I believe that the spirit of traditional music is still alive. I am good friends with a fiddler who is now well into his eighties and he has told me that the way our weekly session operates is not so different from the sessions he attended when he was starting out as a boy in Donegal.

Within this context I think our pub session does provide an atmosphere that is pretty close to "traditional" and one in which the position of an instrument such as the guitar can be considered.

Ian S