They probably think that no one will listen unless it's made "relevant" by a modern re-interpretation. Actually, they opened with Norma Waterson, and I think she sang a traditional piece; the shock of hearing Fiona Talkington quote me straight afterwards rather drove it out of my head. I'll have to listen to that bit again later.

Georgina Boyes gave poor old Cecil Sharp rather a hard time, I thought; even her praise was grudging. It's particularly unfair of a modern, university-trained folklorist to criticise him for not doing things the way they're done now. Had he been born a century later, I expect that he might have met with less qualified approval from her; though they probably wouldn't have liked each other, having I suspect too many character traits in common.

Jim Moray sounds pleasant enough, but I wouldn't exactly describe him as ground-breaking. We were doing those sorts of things to traditional songs thirty years ago, so I'm not sure why he's there; perhaps because he's a young up-and-coming.

Oh, second thoughts; I don't like his Week Before Easter very much. A bit thin, hurried and strangled-sounding. Not a patch on Pete Morton's False Bride to my mind, not to mention the Coppers set that he said he'd based it on...