"Folk music used to be a potent political tool. Does it still have that power? 

Shirley Collins - Potent political tool? I would say 'My arse', if you wouldn’t mind. For me, Pete Seeger bashing his bloody banjo and exhorting an audience to join the chorus of 'We Shall Overcome' never seemed to advance any causes. It just made people feel they were taking part in something. Bob Dylan’s 'Masters of War' is great, but I didn’t quite trust the people writing protest songs because those I knew weren’t, frankly, nice people" (daqui)