"Well it is twelfth night, Jim..."
Actually it's Nollaig na mBan Steve (Woman's - or Small Christmas) when the women of the house can put their feet up and leave the men to do all the work

For the record, Walter developed his interest from having spent years of his youth sitting in the de-wheeled shepherd's hut in his garden with his uncles, particularly his Uncle Billy, listening to their singing
He possibly recognised some of the songs as being the same as those being taught from Sharp's 'Folk Songs for Schools', which is where he possibly picked up the term 'folk songs', but his quiet, personal interpretation was entirely his own
He once compared his uncle Billy's singing to that of Joseph Taylor when somebody played him the 'Brigg Fair' record

It is dubious to use the term 'style' when discussing singers singing outside a living tradition - what they did tended to be very personal - Water's uncles probably had a style - Walter didn't
I also believe that "good" and "bad" are too subjective terms to apply to our older generation of singers - that's what turns you on personally, which is not how you should judge the importance of people like Walter
For me, it boils down to what you remember after listening to a singer - if you remember the performance you know you have been listening to a competent to good singer
If you remember the songs and the stories they carried, then you have been listening to sa successful re-creative artist who has managed to capture your attention and imagination - the sign of a great artist
For me, our older singers are streets ahead of most revivalists - streets ahead
It is this that all singers should be aspiring to achieve

"utter boor who has no concept of UK folk music today."
We've been here before a hundred times Rag
A folk scene that has rejected folk songs and is unable to describe accurately what they have replaced them with is finished as a folk scene
Even if they had increased their audienes tenfold, that would be the case - the fact that the clubs have fallen from thousands to the low hundreds speaks volumes
This was put in a nutshell around twenty-five years ago when a club organiser refused to book Walter saying "We don't do that sort of thing- we're a folk club"
If anything, things have got far worse since then
Jim Carroll