"Millions of people worldwide have a fair idea of what folk is"
Well give us trheir definition - you haven't given us anything other than a folk song is any song I choose to call one
"A few pseuds think it is the exclusive property of a bunch of idealist academics"
And a few knuckle-dragging morons can't tell the difference between a song made, remade and passed on by ordinary (whatever that means) people for may centuries and a meaningless money-spinner made and owned by a millionaire musician who would sue the arse off you if you attempted to claim his song to be anything but that - his song.
Far from being an idealist academic, I'm a retired electrical who has spent most of his life, singing listening to, recording and attempting to pass on the songs and information on them because I believe the people who made and passed them down are worth far more respect than people like you and your contempt are willing to give them.
Your areguments haven't got any more logical or any more honest over the last few days.
You are still the bullying, blustering thug you were when I left.
Re Peter Bellamy
I was never a great admirer of his singing, but he had my undying respect for what he did for folksong (not sure how grateful Muskie the Moron is at his helping yet another "tit-trouesrs" in the form of Walter Pardon onto the folk scene - just another crumbly to buy a pint for and introduce to the 'Hits of Fairport')
I wa also impressed by his self-critical frankness when, at a Pardon/Bellamy concert at CSH, he described his own singing as "Larry-the-Lamb impression"
Jim Carroll