Hi Dave - well you are partly correct - I generally do prefer modern songs that are written about current day or relatively recent issues eg - to name some better known contemporary folk singers - the songs of John Tams, Jez Lowe, Joe Solo, Steve Knightley, Reg Meuross etc

Where you are incorrect though is that I certainly don't dislike traditional songs especially those that relate to urban working life and sea songs. My earliest experience of folk music was very much focussed around mining songs and shanties as they were very commonly sung at Hartlepool Folk Club. I have a particular passion for the songs of Tommy Armstrong - I assume his songs would class as traditional? The only songs I would say I am not keen on (again generalising massively) are those of a more rural nature - especially if they have fol de lol refrains in them! I mentioned earlier that Jim Moray has released a CD of traditional material and I enjoyed his concert at Musicport where he performed almost exclusively traditional songs. I am also a fan of Jon Boden's Folk Song a Day. I particularly enjoy York based Joshua Burnell's take on traditional song where he takes a prog rock approach to the material very successfully in my view - and in the view of others given the fact he is often invited back to festivals and other venues

What I do not enjoy is paying to see an artist at a folk club and then having to sit through a dozen mediocre or worse floor singers over the course of the evening - fortunately the club where this happened no longer exists and most clubs I have attended limit floor spots to two or three each half. Having said that I am a firm believer in the value of the floor spot and have discovered and encouraged many artists I have seen doing such a spot. I rarely attend singarounds or music sessions as I do not sing or play but when I do I enjoy them.

Hope that clarifies things