Oops, forgot to cancel the italics. But, while I'm here, in response to: "You'd not get too many women in the circles these songs were born in, in the fields and down the pub..." I might add that one of my most treasured family photos is of my great-grandmorther, on her ninetieth birthday, laden down with a bundle of cereal crop as she brings in the harvest.

Previous message re-pasted for legibility:

"the folk tradition was in and of itself masculine"

Not true. Much of the singing went on in the home, and many of the most prolific singers that Cecil Sharp et al collected songs from were women: Louie Hooper, Lucy White, Mrs. Overd, and many more. The greatest ballad singers (in terms of repertoire) in Scotland were women - Anna Brown, Bell Duncan - and most of the best ballad singers up there still are. The Child Ballads are full of tales in which woemn are heroic, quick-witted, brave and defiant, and at least one prominent scholar believes that this reflects the fact that ballad singing was mostly a female preserve.

As far as the article goes, it seems to be an example of festival bookers ticking boxes and operating a 'one of each' policy as regards different types of acts. However, bookers have also been known to say, for instance: "we've filled up our 'male soloist' slots", so it works more than one way.

Lady Maisery have done very well, and I hope we continue to see plenty of them and other female groups on our festival stages. All four nominees for BBC 'Folksinger of the Year' were women, as well.