it's this blasted superior, better than thou, attitude of folkies which makes the whole genre seem precious, twee and a wee bit silly.

No it isn't. I'm not a folkie. I just like my music unpretentious and straightforward, and I don't care whether it's folk, jazz, blues, rock'n roll, ragtime or funk - all of which, by the way, I've played in my time and still play.

What doesn't turn me on is a series of talking heads talking platitudes about the place of the acoustic guitar in rock music. Thank the lord for Pete Townsend though, and his down-to-earth boogie-ing on the guitar (acoustic or electric - doesn't matter). One performance from him says more than a dozen talking heads.