here's my experience of singing a few Scots/English Ballads:

"Two Sisters/Binnorie" AND "The Twa Corbies" (linked to Three Ravens) - I've taught both of these songs in workshops and creative projects with children and young people and they love the gruesome stories. In the former, they found the supernatural twist and come-uppance upon the murdering sister very satisfying and in the latter they enjoyed the "who dunnit?" mystery quality. The stripped down urgency of the action and the simplicity of the language is really appealing to children (I'm talking age 9 years up).

I find all of the family murder related songs need extra care in their introduction and performance, because it's likely that those issues are live and close to the bone for at least some of any given audience. So I've had people choose, after an introduction, to go to the loo during, for example, "The Cruel Mother", or who've found "Sheath and Knife" obviously uncomfortable. But equally as a performer I've felt able to make quite explicit links between some of these songs and contemporary moral and political issues/events.

Many older generation singers in Scotland are/were wary of singing some of the biggest songs in certain settings e.g. Mill O Tifty's Annie/The Trumpeter of Fyvie.

Ailie Munro's book "The Democratic Muse" is worth reading for the short section on "The Banks of Red Roses" alone, and the very different interpretations of it acorded by male and female singers.

Good luck.