>> 'Tradpiper' and 'Romany Man' would be a breath of fresh air if there wasn't the sense of them too being regarded as 'other. ('Your people'??) <<

I'm not sure who it was that actually used the phrase "your people", but what *I* said was "your community", which I still don't think is particularly controversial or offensive. Although my Gran and my Mum and Dad all sang songs for fun, much of my knowledge of the songs I sing for a living is from books and recordings. That makes me all the more interested to hear what tradpiper and romany man, who have a different relationship with the songs they know and love, have to say in this discussion. "A 'folk' bubble" is precisely what the Mudcat forum is, but the whole point of starting this thread was to bring in some news from outside the bubble, and that - I am happy to say - is just what's happened. I suppose it was too much to hope that this could be achieved without a bit of axe-grinding along the way. Oh, and Steve Gardham got it exactly right about the distinction between the singer and the scholar's view of the song, so let's not get all stewed up yet again about value judgements - that isn't what this thread is about.