At my folk club last Friday, a person on the committee of the village hall who doesn't follow folk music at all, but was working behind the bar asked the following question.

"I heard a lot of numbers that I knew, but why did they sing them so slowly"

As a non musician and wanting to offer at least some sort of plausible explanation, said - "Well most folk singers like to sing unhappy songs, so by slowing it down they can make it more of a ballad"

She seemed to accept that, but I am not happy with my reply, but feel that I am somewhere near the mark.

The problem is that I don't know what songs she was referring to.

Can anybody enlighten me?