"Me an Jim have decided to reclassify everybody"
When will you get it into your head that what you have done is to de-classify the term so that we no longer know what we are going to be given when we turn up at a 'folk' club - that's why so many of us went somewhere else for what we wanted.
Where's your description - or is it just "what we choose to give you"?
If we can't get to (or can't be bothered to) turn up at your particular club, where is it we can find out exactly what you do?
Is it documented at all.
We've got the literature - we've got the history - you want to hear what we do - listen to 'Voice of the People' or 'Folk Songs of Britain' - or the output of Veteran, or 'Greentrax' or 'The School of Scottish Studies' or the 'Musical Traditions' output.
You want to read about it try 'The Greig Duncan Collection' or 'The Penguin Book of Folk Songs' or just work your way down The Roud Index or the 'Kist o' Riches' or The Irish Traditional Music Archive' website - all available at the flick of a finger.
Where's yours?
Us and ours have been around since at least 1899 in solid, definable form - where have you been all my life - where are you now - where is your consensus, or has 'folk' come to mean "Magical Mystery Tour"?
You may have re-classified what you mean but don't involve anybody else until you can tell us what the new classification is.
C'mon Al - give us a clue - and stop sniping.
Jim Carroll