Cap'n
Wee Little Drummer (and Guest),
Our traditional singers were mainly elderly when they were recorded, but even so, singers like Sam Larner, Charlie Wills and Phil Tanner managed to inject more life, energy and understanding into their songs than most of the singers half their age it has been my dubious pleasure to hear around many of the clubs I've been to.
If you have any feeling for the songs you learn to take the best from our older singer; they had a great deal to offer despite the problems of old age. There are plenty of traditional singers on record who could sing your avarage revival singer into the ground - Walter Pardon, The Stewarts, Jeannie Robertson, Ned Adams from the UK.
And when you get to Ireland, Joe Heaney, the McDonaghs of Feenish Island, Mary Anne Carolan, Tom Lenihan........... the list is endless. Nowadays the bulk of Irish traditional singers are from the Irish speaking areas and if we can't learn from these, and younger singers like Roisín Al Saffdy we may as well give up and take up macramé.
Cap'n wrote:
"Which shows that amatuerish performance is not the exclusive right of folk clubs".
This may or may not be the case - I haven't read the correspondence, but folk clubs seem to be the only musical activity which promotes amatureism as a positive attribute and frowns on skill as frightning the horses (or the mediocre).
I wonder what it is that when you mention 'practice' and 'improvement' to a revival singer, out comes the crucifix and garlic! I can only assume it is either fear of failure or contempt for the material they are singing - or both.
Jim Carroll