Depends where you are Lizzie
When I came into it at the beginning of the sixties it was a life-changing experience - a new subject to be interested in, which eventually filled up most of my waking/non-working hours.
That has deepened rather than gone away.
I watched the clubs disappear and disintegrate, my own singing diminished, but the music was still there and the older generation of singers and musicians continued to give pleasure and pass on their knowledge, both in person and through the recordings.
When we started recording in Ireland it was a fresh blast of adrenaline, but I began to worry that the music wouldn't survive my generation, by the time we moved to the est of Ireland things began to change and hordes of youngsters began to take up traditional instruments.
The future of Irish traditional music has now been guaranteed for at least another two generations and it is in hands and hearts of people more skillful and dedicated than any I have ever witnessed.
I wish I could say the same for back home in the U.K., but I still believe that the situation is reversible.
Folk Music has never made me "miserable" - determines is a much better word.
Jim Carroll