Thanks for that Matt Milton. I'm having fun checking out your list. However, I can see your point of view and I respect it.

To me the first three seemed more old school than me. I can see them fitting seamlessly into the Harding programme and everything that goes with it.

I did a gig with a very good songwriter from Bristol or Bath (or somewhere like that - bloke called Gaz Brookfield. To me Gaz exemplified the newe school. Made me feel like I was a dinosaur.

Gaz and the cohorts that I see like him - bravely (heroicly in my book)coming up from the noisy student bars and and excruciating open mic scene seem more a conyinuation of what I have done. In my time I cut through playing the toilets by using electric guitars but playing them like acoustics. The new guys I have seen smack their guitars around - completely disinterested in finger picking - but they have evolved something that works.

I can see why you would group Sanjay Brain alongside those guys you mention. But Sunjay's different - his heroes really are people like me and the late Roger Brooks - guys who played the shitholes, where folkmusic is found.

I think thats what pisses me off about the 'old school' tag. I've always felt like an outlaw to the folkscene. If there was an old school, I was expelled years ago.