"I can't take lectures from you Brian about context"

I'm not lecturing anyone - just asking what happens to 'context' when a traditional singer finds him- or herself in the dreaded folk club room upstairs with all those Child ballad droners. The singers themselves seem to have been perfectly happy about it - Jeff Wesley is a regular at Northampton Folk Club, Thomas McCarthy used to frequent clubs in London.

"none of them made any distinction as to the category a song fitted into"

Not my fight - you should discuss that one with the other Jim.

"And while Tam Lin & Lord Bateman are wonderful tales & of great value, it takes a real talent to communicate orally such material in 2015. It seems to be a lost art"

Says who? I've heard some great renditions of both those and many others in the last few years, and I've been in some memorable dreich ballad sessions too. Some of the most enthusiastic comments I've ever had for the ballads I sing has been from non-folkies or new-to-it folkies. I wouldn't do them in the local pub, but then again I wouldn't be encouraged to sing anything there unless I took a microphone and played Oasis covers (and my local is unusual in tolerating live music at all). Even the romantic picture of a sozzled 'Lily of Laguna' in the public bar is a museum piece, treasured in the memory like Wicketts Richardson and Cyril Poacher, but gone forever.

The reason I jumped into this thread again is that I really get cross with the attitude (expressed in the original Reg Hall quote) that old ballads should be allowed to die with the likes of the Stewarts and Lizzie Higgins, because later generations of singers are somehow unworthy. No! They are some of the most thrilling and cathartic songs ever made, and will be enjoyed and rediscovered long after 'Lily' has been forgotten.

You sing the songs you like, Jim (I really enjoy your stuff, for what it's worth), but lay off telling me what I should and shouldn't be singing!