Would you be excluded from being described as a source singer if you in fact wrote the songs?

When people talk of these 'traditional' methods - this the most traditional of all methods is not only excluded from the list - it seems to be thought of as being of some less value as other methods.

If the term is to be continued to be used, to my mind, singers who have written their own songs have as much right to be described as source singers as those who may have only added a verse or two of their own or just passed a song on as they heard it.

Are the likes of Cyril Tawney, Ewan McColl and Richard Thompson to be excluded from such a list – after all the fine original songs they have introduced to what is now thought to be the tradition? Especially as many who sing them, do so in the honest belief that that these songs are from a traditional source?

As indeed they unquestionably are.