"what you are not understanding, or willfully trying not to understand is that there are thousand of Al Whittles, and Richard Bridges - running open mics and folk clubs - all round the country. doing gigs in low prestige places for little money.( you know the sort of music Ry Cooders Chicken Skin music album tries to get whiff of). Occasionally getting 'allowed' to do ten minutes as a support act for some of the officer class.

This is folk music. preoved by the presence of folk - not 'the folk audience' but folk. All those songs that you pretend to revere - The Wild Rover etc - that is the forge in which they were created.

Not in the in Right On Performance Centre, by graduates of the hoity toity high and bloody mighty folk aristocracy.

And in our roles - running little studios, little folk clubs, little open mics..."

The thing is, fRoots comes a damn sight closer to covering exactly that kind of thing than any mainstream music magazine could hope to (while continuing to sell enough copies to stay afloat)!

I mean, the last fRoots I bought (which I bought to read the Shirley Collins interview) had a page-long article/interview on Steve Turner in it. Would you describe him as being "high and bloody mighty folk aristocracy"?

And, while I know lots of people loathe and deeply resent the fRoots "And The Rest" reviews section, it does at least mean that hundreds of performers who are working precisely that semi-pro folk-club coalface do at least get some kind of recognition.

It sounds to me like you should start a fanzine, Big Al. It would feature reviews of floor-singers and home-produced CDRs. Its editorial policy would discount coverage anyone it deemed to have achieved even a modest level of "commerical success".

Actually, I'd quite like to read something like that. But it wouldn't be fRoots, and it seems daft to slag off fRoots for not being the precise thing you want it to be.