Countess Richard: i've spent a fair amount of the last 50 years enthusing over,studying and performing folk songs, but I regret to say I didn't have the slightest idea who Countess Richard was till you kindly explained it a few posts back. And I doubt if I was alone in this state of abysmal ignorance.
    To be quite frank: performance standards being what they are on the folk scene, I'm sorry to say I've generally dropped off by the time they get past the first thirty or so verses of a Child ballad.