Sits back and waits for the inevitable abuse ...

I'll leave the inevitable abuse to you, Shimrod, who, in failing to appreciate the content of my posts, much less the spirit in which they were written, nevertheless feels the need to mock and sneer from behind the backs of far greater minds than his.

This isn't about evidence - the evidence is the songs themselves - no question there. Rather, it a matter how we might interpret that evidence in the light (or otherwise) of the fact that The 1954 Definition and related Doctrines (such as The Holy Folk Process) has become a Question-it-at-your-peril Theological Absolute which sits as a headstone on the grave of a Folk Revival which has not only failed Traditional Folk Song, but in so doing shamefully misrepresented it, resulting in the somewhat desultory status amongst other British Cultural Treasures that it enjoys today.