"Folk song is enjoying a huge revival".

Blimey, what a statement, where on earth does that come from?

I'm sadly with Jim Carroll on this one and his sarcastic "yeah, sure it is!!". Not that I'm sad to agree with Jim, but that the statement is evidently not true.

On that, um, odd folk club "Rose scale", most that I know of are resolutely stuck on 8. Full of pop wannabee singer songwriters with their tedious, unmemorable and unrepeatable dirges, and as someone else has pointed out, no quality control; either through policy or peer pressure.

Yes, I know that there are some decent folk clubs around where you can actually and consistently hear the odd folk song or tune, but they are few and far between in these parts.

The anything goes attitude effectively drives out folk music, whether that is the avvowed intention or not. Running an event, club or session that majors on folk music and defends that position can be hard work. A singers night or floor spots are incresingly just seen as another pub "open mic" event. These performers are not interested in folk music or the tradition but in aping the latest vacuous "acoustic pop" styles at an event where they can find an audience.

Yes, I'm quite acerbic about most "singer-songwriters", and I think rightly so, though some of the artists I value most highly might be described as "singer-songwriters" if you were so minded. I suppose that's to do with the quality control thing again.

At a local "folk club" a group of the performers were chatting afterwards and I overheard what was clearly meant to be a witty remark, oh yes, he opined, folk music is just music played by folks, so we're playing folk music.

I know that's bringing up the whole "horse" thing, but it was a genuine remark that I heard recently.