Putting any restriction og any type of music, song - you name the art form, is restrictive and arrogant - if they have any sense, people will take anything on offer from any of these - they all go beyond simple 'entertainment'
I am not surprised Bob Davenport made such a statement; my last memory of seeing him was at The Musical traditions Club, in London, where the guests were two of my favourite singes, Roisín White, and Aran Islander, Teresé Mullane.
Teresé sang in Irish and was thoughtful enough to explain each of her songs with short introductions.
We were unfortunate enough to be seated a row in front of Davenport, who spoke loudly and very pointedly throughout all of her introductions, until I became a bit pissed off and asked him to pack it in.
He replied, "I thought we got rid of all this talking shit years ago; I came here to listen to songs".
Pretty well in character for someone who once described Jeannie Robertson as "a terrible singer" (we have a recording of him doing so)
Boorish loutishness rules O.K.
Jim Carroll