When we are talking about traditional singer versus revival singer, there is a whole grey area. Some "traditional" singers have learnt songs from the folk revival and some "revival" singers have songs that they have learnt from parents, grandparents or from "an old boy in the village". And from the point of view of enjoyment for the singer and his/her audience, it doesn't matter a jot.

However, with my researcher hat on, I try to record song performances that, so far as I can tell, have not been learnt through the revival or through recent media. It makes a difference from the academic point of view and I always ask a singer where he/she learnt the song. This means of course that I am less interested in recording some songs than others. That said, it is instructive to note what the whole repertoire of a singer is, folk songs, music hall, pop songs, the lot, something which collectors in previous generations did not note as they were only after what they considered to be the folk song gems.

Tradsinger