I'm not convinced by your stance on singer songwriters, Suibhne. Two words at you: 'Bob' and 'Pegg'...

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I've no issue with self-styled purists who are quietly and introspectively pure. I do struggle a little with those who see themselves as being on some sort of evangelical purity crusade (like the individual who emailed me in disgust about The Woodbine & Ivy Band and how dare these people do that to our music...).

'Purist' as a perjorative term is all a matter of degree - there's a continuum (several, really) of alleged purity. I might think someone's a bit of a purist - someone else might think I am, another person might think they are and so on. Some 'purists' might want to distinguish traditional music from the contemporary folk singer songwriters and see one as good and one as bad. Some might want to distinguish between 'good' trad music played on fiddles and melodeons and 'bad' trad music played on electric guitars and squeaky analogue synths. Some 'purists' might draw imaginany lines in the sand between professional and amateur performers, or folk club and arts centre performers. Some 'purists' might want to draw a line between singer songwriters who write 'in the tradition' and those who don't (which is a highly subjective and ultimately pointless excercise anyway) or those who perform on the folk scene and those who don't. Then you get the diction fetishists, the unnaccompanied-versus-accompanied brigade, the 'sing in your own voice' versus 'inhabit a role' lot and so on. Ultimately it makes the whole concept of purism so subjective as to render it meaningless. I suspect it's just an excuse to get cross for people who enjoy getting cross, a reason to label things by people who like labels and an excuse for heated debate for people who like heated debates - and I make no value judgements about any of these groups.

Personally, I'm a big fan of impurity, but on my terms. Anyone else's purity or otherwise is their business and their right to indulge in - unless they decide to try to impose it on me and tell me what I should believe. A bit of reasoned discussion's cool, though.