"So, at least in part, the has descended into the usual thing of old men arguing about whether folk clubs are any good."
We owe our songs to "old men (and women) - without them, we wouldn't have have the decades of pleasure
and knowledge that we got from the gifts that they gave us.
I always thought it polite never to mention their age - another change that has taken place, it appears (they even have a label for it now - 'ageism)
These arguments have always taken place, as far back as 1300 years ago, when The Venerable Bede groused about having his sermons interrupted by cattlemen passing a harp around and singing lewd songs - they have been a part of the learning curve and have helped sustain the interest in the songs of the people.
If we can't argue about them here, we may as well forget them
Sorry, and all that.
All I know is that sometime in the 80s it became common to walk into a folk club and not hear a folk song
Thousand like me shared that experience and walked away from the scene
I'm delighted that some are still going - many hundreds of clubs disappeared, as did the magazines and the dozens of record labels
Dick mentions visiting 20 folk clubs last year - I could have visited that many in a week within a short driving instance of my home
That is no longer the case in the U.K. and that is what the scene lost

Some of us continued to work on folk song, singing where we could, amassing recorded examples of folk songs proper and making them available to those interested and ascertaining that was was available would survive for future generations to make use of.
I make no apologies for arguing about what I believe to be happening - sadly, the abuse and the reluctance to argue the facts only confirms my opinion that, if the British scene doesn't get its finger out the scene will die.

30 odd years ago, when I was visiting Ireland regularly to record songs, music lore and information, I believed that the few of us around would be the last
Thanks to old (and young) men and women arguing, proselyting, setting up schools, raising money.... to build a foundation for the survival of the traditional arts, Irish folk traditions have now been guaranteed a future for at least another century
Young people are flooding onto the scene to take up the music, and at last, the songs (slowly) - not as career opportunists but for the sheer love of it.
They don't sit around hurling "purist" and "finger-in-ear" abuses - they know what the music is ans they realist its importance
Rather than denigrating the old, they realise that it is they who helped keep the music alive - the present renaissance is based on young players and singers listening to and beinng taught by these crumblies
Jim Carroll