At the risk of being redundant, let me be specific about what I am looking for. First of all, I am looking for contemporary, living people who actually sing these ballads. I would like to limit my search to North America, which means both the U.S. and Canada. I realize that there are many fine singers of traditional ballads in other places, but I am concerned with those who are on my side of the water. This is strictly a geographical limit and nothing else.

These people don't have to be professional performers, but they can be. At this point I don't want to limit my search to any particular style of presentation. I'm interested in people who sing the old ballads. I'm more interested in people who tend to focus their singing on this kind of material or who at least have as a significant part of their repertoires the old ballads. However, I think that anyone who undertakes to sing a Child ballad has to have some serious interest in the material!