Cool doesn't matter when it comes to Steeleye Span. They're way beyond cool. Folk, for that matter, doesn't rely on anything else but the ability to dig the roots of music and celebrate some weighty concepts. And they bring weighty bunch of knowledge to play out their historical dramas - real or unreal. Prior has a lovely way of looking at it all.
Traditional music comes round in a cycle.
I've always seen it like an ellipse. It's always there. It's passing quite close, right now. A bit like Halley's Comet. I think there's always an interest in historic quality and the cultural, past at some level.