"There are rules, but they are largely procedural. Smooth Ops supplies no guidelines as to who does or does not qualify. Jurists, I'd guess, make commonsense assumptions, and if enough of them voted for The Krar Collective or even Alistair Roberts, they'd be up there. That there are no artists in the final line-up from Spleen's record label is in spite of my most strenuous efforts."

This is about what I'd expect: there's no conspiracy, it's simply that the Awards reflect the rather middle-of-the-road and unadventurous tastes of the panel.

There is no real reason why Rapunzel & Sedayne couldn't be nominated for the awards - they have, after all, received more press in mainstream media than many other nominated acts have in the past. But it's inconceivable. It's not that they're "not on their radar", it's just the jury simply don't like that sort of music.

I mean Alasdair Roberts is an excellent case in point. He's on album number 6, all of them having been covered in both folk press and mainstream press. He's revived a Scots mummers tradition (Galoshins) and toured it; he writes the title-track (Hyperboreans) of an album for Jackie Oates and it receives a nomination. Emily Portman does guest backing vocals on his sixth album; she has received a nomination. To my mind it's clear that Emily Portman or Jim Moray are as far as the jury's taste gets in terms of "edgy".

It's no big deal in the grand scheme of things, but I do think it's a shame that the R2 awards always have and always will be so conservative. Maybe it's about time fRoots and Spiral Earth and others teamed up to host a small-scale annual alternative folk awards to celebrate the non-Smashie & Nicey stuff?