....ballad scholar David Buchan claimed that at the height of the tradition there were no set texts to ballads but plots and poetic commonplaces which a singer would use to re-compose at the point of performance."
"And does your own collecting experience support that view, Jim?"
Brian,
Not often, but we were dealing with a tradition that was very much in decline.
It occasionally happened with Travellers Mary Delaney and Bill Cassidy who were the most stylish singers we met, and it was was interesting to compare Mary's singing of the same songs as her brother Paddy - both of them learned the songs from their father Terry.
The most spectacular example I ever heard was that of Tom Costello of Spiddal in Connemara when he was recorded by friends singing 'The Grand Conversation on Napoleon'
Jim Carroll