I peeled this off from the Folk 21 thread because I didn't want to contribute to dragging the discussion any further off topic.

Here's a summary of the plot so far. It starts with Big Al taking a pop at fRoots for having the wrong sort of folk coverage. You know, writing about Johnny Foreigner, apparently at the expense of covering British folk musicians:

"Be interesting though to see how many Mongolian nose flute players, etc. - the sort of thing Froots has so selflessly devoted its pages to advancing the caree s of, whilst the people who have made the Englsih folkscene work have seen their life's work relegated to the 'and the rest' column - support this initiative."

I replied:

Do get with the programme, Al! fRoots have noted Mongolian nose flautist Nic Jones on this month's cover. Last month they had nose flautist Shirley Collins. The month before that, nose flautists The Oyster Band. Every month there are leading reviews and features about British folk artists, new and old, nose flautists all. That they also champion folk music from other places is surely a good thing? This month I'm particularly taken by rembetika group, Apsilies. Were it not for fRoots, I'd never have heard of them. No nose flutes, though...

Richard Bridge chipped in with a rather gnomic:

Just a minor point on Al's excellent analysis. Surely fRoots are on one flank among the leading protagonists of the "don't call it folk" army but on the other mainstream horse definitioners.

(At this stage could I add a quick huh???)

Al came back with a snappy response:

So these Apsilie people will be volunteering their services for free to support this initiative.....ho hum!

I'm sure you and your mates from immemorial(Nic Jones, Shirley Collins and the Oyster Band - went out on limb there, eh?)will continue to live apsilie ever after.........

This is what I was going to reply with, but the thread was already in danger of going dangerously off-piste.

Al. I sometimes think you are being wilfully dense. Why on earth should a group from Greece be expected to be involved in a UK folk showcase event?

You make some dodgy comment about Mongolian noseflute music. I assume this is an attempt to disparage the coverage of folk music from non-English speaking countries that fRoots carries.

You suggest that British folk music is relegated to the 'and the rest' column of fRoots. when I point out that the past three covers have been of British folk artists, you make it clear that this still isn't good enough for you. And shock! horror! Magazine that needs to sell copies to keep going puts artists people might have heard of on the cover. What an outrage! Bet none of the other music magazines do this!

Let me try to put it simply. We have a folk, roots and world music magazine in the UK that, despite being completely independent of corporate backers and big publishing companies, has kept going for 33 years and is still going strong. It's the only national monthly music magazine that regularly carries reviews of British folk artists, known and unknown, many of whom wouldn't stand a cat in hell's chance of getting covered in the mainstream music press (there's also R2, but that only comes out every other month, and also covers a lot of other sorts of music).

My view is that the continued presence of fRoots and its continued championing of British and other folk music is cause for celebration. I don't understand why this magazine causes such ire amongst a certain strata of folkies. Not reading it is one thing - this irrational anger at its very existence is just weird.