I know of NO collector or folklorist (with the possible exception of Vance Randolph) who didn't have a hidden agenda. And this hidden agenda colored his/her work. Whether it was Henry Ford's guys trying to prove that America had a culture untainted by the Brits or the Blacks, or the ones trying to prove that Southern Appalachia was really transplanted Elizabethan England, or the Socialists trying to show that folk music was the voice of social protest, they all had agendas.

Think of it like mining--all of them, regardless of intent, helped refine the ore. They didn't do a complete job, but all of them helped make it possible for us to get at the music and words. For which I thank them, from the bottom of my heart.