It's very hard to speak of Ewan's contributions to folk music, you'd have to read volumes. To me there are 4 greats in modern folk, Peter Kennedy-Scotland, Seamus Ennis-Ireland, Alan Lomax-US & Ewan MacColl-England. Out of them all MacColl was the only real songwriter & much of his material has gone on into the repertoires of both traditional & contempory singers alike. His Radio Ballads were landmark classics, his protest songs wore out his welcome to many places before he got there, what he collected & rooted out was the shot in the arm that revived the British folk revival. Barry