Hi Brian
I think the idea that the folk world frowns upon personally centred songs is rather too simplistic and overstated. If those sort of songs are presented in an accessible way and they are good songs we can all identify with then there is not a problem. I think it is a wider issue than that. A lot of poetry and song is so personal and meaningful only to the writer so that it is difficult to empathise with. When you are out for an evening's entertainment the last thing you want to be asking is what the hell was that about?

Folk songs that have long been in oral tradition have their gaps in leaping and lingering and often they leave the gaps to the imagination of the listener, but those songs don't last long if they don't have some meaning to the listener.