Thank heavens I'm not really interested in folk songs

Oi, Fly! Don't forget your promised AFSAY project. We're still waiting!

Me, I'm all about the songs, and the older the better; the coverage of my ideal mag would consist mostly (but not exclusively) of people doing English traditional songs, with perhaps a featured singer-songwriter every issue (we could call it No Listen, This One's Actually Quite Good). I don't really relate to music from places where they don't have the decency to speak English, because when I'm listening to songs I like to listen to the words - essentially I like to learn the words. But it's probably my loss; I'm probably missing out on a whole bunch of interesting sounds which would be to the Benefit of my Musical Education. (Never listen to ambient/electro/whatever any more, either. I was heavily into the Orb for a while back there (until they got silly), not to mention Underworld (until they got boring) and FSOL/AmAnd (until they started giving me the creeps). But anyway.)

Anyway, the reason why I'm telling you all this - apart from having nothing else to do with my lunch hour - is that the bits of the folk scene that can turn me into a massive knee-jerking Grumpy English Traditional Bore aren't "world music" at all, but imitation American styles sung in fake American accents, not to mention sentimental paddywhackery of the Wild Rover/Athenry/You Can Take That Black Velvet Band And variety. Both of which, I think I'm right in saying, Al would file under Real Folk For Real People or words to that effect.

I don't think there's necessarily any consistency to any of this. Most of us are passionate about something we call "folk"; most of us have a few things in mind as really good examples (now that's what I *call* folk), and a few other things in mind as really bad examples (call that folk?). The problems start when we assume that other people have exactly the same mental map as we do.