Jim - I'm not tearing anything down just reporting on what I see to be the case. It's what Folk is - it's a verty precious specialism about which the real world couldn't give a damn one way or the other. Even most Folkies I meat couldn't give two hoots about Traditional song. I believe it's now the fashion for Folkies to call non-Folkies Muggles; whilst this is true of other specialisms too, I find it rather depressing especially when the culture of Real Venacular Popular Music Making is so vigorous in a muliplicity of idioms - even something called 'Folk' which no Folkie would ever call Folk, which goes back to Tom Wilson turning Dylan and Simon & Garfunkel onto electricity by overdubbing their music with rock music - and that's years before we get to the doldrums of UK Folk Rock.

Ultimately discussions like this on the nature of Traditional Music as hermetically sealed sacred art entirely separate from the rest of Popular Culture just serve to demonstate the extent of an elitism which is part and parcel of The Revival. Myself, I reckon that's a massive part of its appeal - like those earnest Traddies in singarounds who introduce a ballad by quoting both its Child & Roud Number. Even I refer to songs by their Child Number largely in deference to an academic tradition I'm still in awe of.