There were many beautiful moments in last night's birthday concert for Shirley Collins, the various artists singing with true love for the songs. On that point I would disagree with guestCJB that there was 'nothing from the heart.'

The fact that most of the singers were not from a Sussex singing tradition attests to the breadth of appeal that Shirley's music has, not to mention its extremely high quality; moreover, the lack of parochialism evident in the concert healthily honours the fact that Shirley travelled widely beyond her Sussex home, most notably in the American South, to encounter, learn from and record various traditional musics of other cultures than her own. It's always seemed to me that, like the best art, Shirley's music speaks about what humans have in common regardless of place of origin or habitation, reaching out to something universal.