"England has always been reasonably open to other people's folk music" Jack I don't know if yourself or anyone else experiences this. As you know we play in the Cobbles in Kelso every Friday (after the initial open mic) night and through the summer it is invariably full of tourists. I know it doesn't fit for everyone, and maybe some will criticise me for saying it, but I have noticed a trend of the typical English tourist sitting and lapping up the Scottish repetoire whilst on the other hand though they enjoy themselves equally it often doesn't take long for the Irish tourist to start asking for Irish songs. I don't know why there is this difference. Maybe the Irish just enjoy their own music more! I find it strange though. I couldn't envisage a group of us going to Ireland then starting to request lots of Scottish songs in a pub. I think we'd be more interested in what the locals have to offer.