Let's just see if it can be sweetened a bit first, Joe. I personally am no guardian of any "folk scene." I'm a guardian of going out having a damn good time playing/singing music IN THE SPIRIT of our long legacy but refusing to be hidebound. Not pretending that Pogues or Dylan or Geldof are "folk" or anything remotely like it. I neither think they are, would claim they are, nor give a damn whether they are. I know what's folk and what isn't, more or less, and, as a sort of eclectically-minded bloke (though sod jazz), I enjoy anything that's rendered well. And I don't think that any tradition worth its salt need feel threatened by incursions by other influences. Life's rich tapestry an' all that. "Worth its salt" being the operative phrase. Discuss...