... music which takes its inspiration from the jazz and cowboy music, blues and music hall songs which my parents sang and danced to - I perceive as MY roots.

Exactly, Al. If that's what you grew up with and what percolated into your consciousness as a child, then so be it.

The same for me - influences as a small child from the radio, from the wind-up gramophone and stack of 78rpm records at my grandparents' house up the road, from their next-door neighbour who played a chromatic Hohner harmonica, from my aunt who thumped out tunes on the piano of a Saturday night. And then, later in life, more radio, 45rpm records, rock'n roll, jazz, skiffle, classical music at school, a dazzling array of musical influences while working at the Beeb.

And so for all of us - we make conscious choices of music to dig into. The question that keeps coming back to me is: what's so precious about traditional (define your own terms) English folk music that we have to discuss what's going "wrong"? If it's sung, it's sung; if it's not, it's not. In this era of recorded music, archives, libraries, etc., it's never going to get lost. Like all music, its popularity will wax and wane with fashion. So what? Just play the music you love - from the heart.

Richard - I second Al's admonishment. Simple abuse is no argument and does you no credit. I've always found Sean's writing to be fun, stimulating and interesting - whether I agree with the sentiments or not. And - as I said earlier - one or two black faces in English traditional music at the moment (it may well change), is still the exception that proves the rule - that the music is currently largely a white demographic.