"I'm not talking about 'traditional singers'....Lawdy! Lawdy!"
You really need to decide what you are talking about - your foot-in-mouth is causing much confusion - not least in your own mind, it would appear.
"I'm talking about the kind of er...discussion that's going on in "Kate's thread"
Kate who - don't think you mean Kate Lee?
"do you really think the ploughboys would have cared a hoot about what AL did, or didn't,"
Don't know really - never met any ploughboys - did you? Come to think of it, Burns was a ploughboy, and a folk song collector- wonder how that fits in with your 'ignorant and disinterested peasant' philosophy! Lloyd and Williams' 'Penguin Book' has been a source of much pleasure and information down the years and, as Jack has already mentioned, 'Folk Song in England' did a tremendous job in fleshing out the subject - what's your problem???   
None of the source singers we met would have cared too much for what Kate Rusby did or didn't do - does that affect her singing?
Walter Pardon was a carpenter in North Norfolk; he was well-read and articulate, about his songs and was more articulate on the subject than anybody I have ever met - read what he had to say about singing and songs sometime.
Please can you tell us on what you base the 'ignorant and disinterested' picture of the traditional singer, on - I've never met one like that.
Personally I've never understood the insistence from some people that we remain ignorant about the music that takes up so much of our lives over the years - nobody is insisting that you go out and read a book so why should you insist that we all put our minds into neutral?
Jim Carroll