This comment from GUEST, Phil B struck me:

There's no one else from the 'Old Guard' out there doing it to that standard with that enthusiasm.

I'm assuming by 'Old Guard', Phils's talking about performers of a certain age, from the 60s/'70s perhaps, who've been around the public folk scene. In my experience, there are - and always have been - excellent guitarists who may not have been in the public eye, but who have been playing away in pubs and clubs and restaurants for years with just the same skill, artistry and enthusiasm. I could name half a dozen great players from my neck of the woods in Sussex who it's a pleasure to listen to and to play with, and who very few people outside Sussex would probably know.

It's one of the reasons I've never bothered to get enthused about folk awards or any other awards. Good luck to the people that get them, by all means, and I hope their careers profit by them, but what the awards are representative of, I have no idea.