I have yet to read a staff critic from any Canadian newspaper who was fit to review folk music. The reviews are generally full of howlers and breath-taking ignorance, whether they are reviewing trad singers/musicians or "folkie" singer/songwriters. I remember reading one in a Toronto paper, probably the Star, of the Cape Breton fiddler Natalie MacMaster. While generally quite favourable the reviewer thought that the step-dancing was a gimmick, which showed her profound ignorance of the musical tradition of that island.

"Folk music" to most of these urbanite reviewers (who purport to be able to review almost any genre of music) means suspicious rubes with rotten teeth and a rope for a belt, sneaking away from picking the banjo on the collapsing front porch of their shacks to commit indecent acts on their sisters behind the outhouse.

They should farm these reviews out to qualified freelancers.

Most rock and alternative lyrics I've heard are pretty self-righteous, and often just quite selfish, petulant, and juvenile. And of rap and hip-hop lyrics the less said the better. Of course they may accurately reflect a certain culture, but then so did The Horst Wessel.