JeffB:
I'm a singer, too. I don't need to be reminded that many of the old songs I sing are things of beauty, nor educated on the nature of performance. I just want to know, when I stand up and introduce a piece as "an old song", that it actually is - substantially at least. Otherwise, the whole thing is a hollow sham. I've lost count of the singers I've heard introduce 'Reynardine' as a relic of some ancient superstition about 'were-foxes'. It ain't true!

Whether or not we accept Bert Lloyd as "an authentic product of the tradition" (and like Les, I think there's a bit of a difference between him and, say, Harry Cox), the fact is that his influence over the course and repertoire of the English folk revival from the 1950s onwards was unique (the contribution of MacColl notwithstanding), and on that ground alone his methods and legacy are deserving of scrutiny.