Cap'n
I confess I am not that familiar with McTell's music - the only examples I heard to any great length were the few on the radio and the interminable 'Streets of London'.
I was basing my judgment on what he performed when he (fairly regularly) visited the West London Irish Traditional Music Association (the branch of CCE that was expelled). McTell was a great supporter of Irish music.
That bore no resemblance whatever to folk music as I knew it.
However, I'm happy to bow to your greater knowledge - my apologies.
I did intend to raise one point you made earlier, but my last posting was already far too long. Regarding Bert Lloyd, you wrote:
"Doubts about some of Berts scholarship exist ,some of his own songs have been passed off by him as traditional."
I was extremely grateful to Mark Gregory for posting a quote from Bert that I either hadn't come across before, or that I had forgotten.
While I have some queries about parts of Bert's statement (I tend to believe that communities must have more in common that attending the same office each morning), much of the quote makes sense to me.
Are you saying that you disagree with the statement - if so, what are your objections?
On the other hand, are you suggesting that because Bert did some things we wouldn't necessarily approve of, that we must reject everything he says. This latter, in my opinion, seems an extremely draconian stance to take towards someone who did more to give us the music we listen to than the whole of the Mudcat membership rolled in one.
It always seems a particularly facile and unfair method of argument to attack the person making the statement rather than the statement itself.
Will look forward to reading your response when I get back
Jim Carroll