Chifmunk wrote:
Are we only supposed to post Irish music here?
Not at all, not at all. But this site started out around the crest of the Riverdance craze, and it continues to be an outlet for those with such interests. Whistle music includes Kwela and Skiffle, among others. If Kwela doesn't get a lot of press here, that's just a site popularity thing. We have no rules against it. On the C&F Whistle Forum, it's about the whistle.
As to the Irish/Scottish dichotomy, there is and always has been a great deal of mutual crossover when it comes to the tunes themselves. That said, IMO it behooves the Trad enthusiast to eventually realize that only the casual, uninformed observer sees Scottish and Irish trad playing as non-different. They are closely related, but they are not the same. When it comes to referring to both at the same time, I think the more inclusive term "Gaelic Musics" would be helpful (if not entirely accepted). After all, when you say "Trad", what does it
really mean? Québecois? Breton? Galician?
If Scottish trad enthusiasts want to represent, then do it by all means. Might even freshen things up a bit. I'd find it informative, personally. I'd done the Irish thing for years - with fierce intent, I think, if not fierce ability - but when I finally found myself in a Scottish band, I found that in the trenches I was out of my depth in a lot of ways, which is to say in how a given tune is expressed. Had to learn another language, almost.