Oh come on. I didn't say that only a few performers were good. I said only a few were great. Nic came out of the golden age of folk music in the 60s and 70s and gave some old folk songs the definitive version. Imagine someone equalling Nic's version of Canidee-i-o or Little Pot Stove. It's unlikely to happen and if it does then they will get a wider audience than the smug clique that cluster around the dreary and fading remains of the once innovative and exciting folk clubs. Come on, you know I'm telling the truth. Why else set up this site? Why else would it get such a good response. I ask you: name me one modern folk artist who matches the beauty of Nic's playing? I doubt if you can.

As for jazz being a form of musical mastrubation, well, it very often is; but at its best, when the musicians take the audience with them -'trane, Monk, Mingus, Louis, Dolphy,-it matches the very best. A matter of opinion.

As for you sharyn, that is some claim. The blues has been done to perfection by the likes of Skip James, Blind Blake, Charlie Patton and Tommy Johnson. These are the names you bandy about with Nic Jones, not some Johnny-come-lately white boy who mimics the originals. I might be wrong.... but I bet I ain't. Ain't one white boy done it yet and I doubt if Chris Smither is any different.