Don't call 'em Folk Nights and don't be purist about what you will and won't allow to be sung.

Call 'em "Open Mic" nights, "Acoustic Nights", "Performance Clinics" or whatever, and watch the young guns (most of whom can play and sing ten times better than you), queuing up to get a slot.

Big Al's riposte to Bignige was perfect. Not many people sing or play folk music (in the purist sense) even in so-called Folk Clubs these days. But if that is your own personal bag, go for it... people will listen to and appreciate almost anything if it is done with conviction.

AND if you don't close your ears and mind, there have been a lot of good songs written since the Child Ballads were collected, a lot of them are being kept alive, yes by young people who like to sing the songs their daddies and mummies sang to them. Stuff like Human League, Police, The Waterboys and the like.

The Music of the People will live on, even if you don't recognise it as such.