perhaps folk music is something else. Something that folks do, in every age. no real pattern to it.

I've tried that on various occasions, & on at least one of which (during your sabbatical as I recall) even wished you onside - see the legend that is the 1954 and All That thread. More recently I had the epiphany that was Steamfolk, which I clarified in a couple of magazine articles, but even so the orthodoxy reacted with customary hostility despite the essentially positive thrust of my thesis. Ho hum. Broadly I'd have to agree with you, especially with respect of the overall context & usage of music & musical experience in working class culture. I feel exactly the same way about folklore, which is also a bourgeois fantasy of lower class ill-educated superstitious ignorance yielding some curious capers worthy of taxonomy & taxidermy, what? Of course a broader analysis of all this only serves to underline the futility of folk anyway: part academic fantasy, part religious comfort blanket, part DIY MOR reactionary pop nostalgia, part cultural autism, part self-styled artistic movement - but in any case (let's face it) wholly irrelevant to the majority of English Dwelling Human Beings of any class who really have better things to worry about. This makes your own position all the more worrying, Al - at least when it comes to the reality of Folk in the UK & beyond, which, one would hope, is examplified by accepting & supporting one another in a spirit of overall camaraderie no matter how we might see fit to approach 'it' as individuals. In this respect I'd say it's a matter of looking after the pence & letting the pounds look after themselves. At least that's the ideal...

The reality is somewhat different; Personal Preference is not a gateway to righteousness, and Anarchy (like Atheism) must be all inclusive. Believe it or not, this is what I strive for in life: it's called the Bigger Picture, which in practical terms means stepping out of the Fishpond of the UK Folk Scene and taking a dip in the Ocean from time to time just to keep things real, or else to stop from going completely insane. Even here on the Lancashire Coast, one might get a sense of the truly global as the Irish Sea meats with the Atlantic and all points beyond. Meanwhile, in the folk pond, it looks like someones forgot to turn the aerator on again and things are getting more than a little stagnant; the big fish are bullying the little fish in a fight for precious oxygen & resentment grows more mean spirited by the minute. At the end of the day though, all I'm truly bothered about is going to bed with a smile on my face, which isn't too difficult in the UK Folk Scene, just I'd really rather be laughing with them, rather than laughing at them, but it's a difficult one at times as things become increasingly, and painfully, negative & resentful. Are we downhearted? Not a bit - just a little disappointed really, given the reasons we have to celebrate here & nary a fecking word!

S O'P (New Year's Day 2012, listening to Purcell Sonatas of 3 Parts in a mood of general, though melancholic, optimism. Or is it more one of resignation?)