It's my emerging conviction that Folk Songs were written by master craftspersons steeped in a creative tradition of Popular Versification which though being long dead to us is a cunning I feel many of the singers had - including several Coppers, the occasional Cox and Larner - and even A L Lloyd and an E MacColl - and most definitely a Mr Kipling and likewise a certain Mr Bellamy, Mr Carthy etc. Others have tried, and failed - Bob Pegg's worthy efforts, likewise those of Dave Cousins, remain obvious parodies as awkwardly ill-at-ease as Robert Burns efforts in this respect. Our very own Ron Baxter has the knack for sure - a mysterious hand-crafted cunning somewhat anomalous in this modern off-the-shelf machine age, but which nevertheless lingers, in pockets, here and there.

An emerging conviction as I say - taking shape as the years pass and certain things occur to me. Whilst I'm an Evolutionist who does not believe in Intelligent Design, I don't hold much with the Folk Process, which presupposes that collectivity takes precedence over the essential idiosyncrasy by which Traditional Song is most effectively manifest and conveyed. Also, I think maybe there just isn't the time to account for the variations as being random consequences of human failings. I detect a creative convention, a genre of such, as vibrantly ingenious as Jazz, or Country, or Pop, or Sit-com writing (the Ballads of our time?). But Keep Away ye Folk Dementors! Swoop not upon my soul for these are just a few ideas, in the offing as it were, open to discussion, and almost certainly off the record...