"I'm not sure why you think its not worth a slot in the pantheon of folk music"
Having made you position clear on folk song and old people, I'm not sire why you care Al
We havn't discussed music hall songs here - what I have been arguing against is the pop and pop sounding songs
Music hall songs have always been dismissed as not being folk songs because they are not - nothing to do with me
I am perfectly aware of what workhouses are - I have predecessors who were in them
I find many music hall songs mawkinsh, patronising and over-sentimantal - the opposite of folk song, as I have experienced it
As far as my truculence is concerned - I have put may case strongly and politely - you continue to abuse as have others here
Dismissing folk songs as "sepia rural" is as offensive as it gets - that is exactly what they are not - I have posted my analysis of them - respond to that if you want to
Unfortunately calling yourself a folk club is pretty meaningless nowadays, as has been proven adequately here
As I have said often, thousands of us walked away from them when we stopped hearing them sung there
Jim