Well with the best will in the world (and my will is in the top four) - are you asking the right question Dave?

To me it seems that folk is dirty, by definition. Its the English language you are taking issue with.

Folk is the music of the great unwashed. The Queen isn't folk, or her family. THe house of Lords isn't folk.

People write folksongs about the nobility like Matty Groves, and Sir Patrick Spens. But Lords and ladies have their gig and folk belongs with the mucky denizens in the mucky streets.

All attempts to trap it on BBC4 for half a dozen insomniacs and a couple of superstars who need a government grant and a record deal to change their guitar strings have been pretty shit - compared to the actual stuff of pubs, and peoples front rooms.

Blues doesn't shy away from its demotic origins and the fact that all the practitioners are skint. Why should we?