Source singers? They are interesting to the traddie, but usually they're not enthralling performers, if you want to just enjoy the music.

I must take issue with this statement; it's not untypical of attitudes I've encountered down the years. For sure, it's a matter of taste, but these so-called 'source singers' (let's call them Traditional Singers shall we?) are the pure drop & it is an honour to be able to hear them - because in hearing them you hear how a Folk Song lived and breathed in its natural habitat before being dragged kicking & screaming into the humpty-dumpty macrame-beat open-D guitar picking conventions of British Folk Music. Like I said earlier, I pretty much gave up on listening to revival folk once I discovered I could listen to the Traditional Singers instead - they made it real in a way no revival singer ever could. And the best Revival Singers always reveared the Tradition Singers anyway. First acknowledge the wisdom of the ancients...

Some of the first truly Traditional albums I bought were those lovely old Tangent / School of Scottish Studies LPs such as The Muckle Sangs, Bothy Ballads and the utterly awesome Music from the Western Isles - that was back around 1977 / 79 and I still listen to them today - even on CD as we bought a bundle up in Auld Reekie back in February. To me these albums are what Folk is all about, and whilst, for sure, I might question the methods of VOTP (even the School of Scottish Studies albums), each song on there - each perfect performance - is a joy beyond measure; each performance more enthralling than anything you're going to be able to hear elsewhere, much less pull off yourself (!?). In short the Traditional Singers are the reason why we're here in the first place - something too oft forgotten in Folk these days.