Howard said everything I wanted to say (irritatingly enough) in this comment. I think the point I'd want to stress is that things are being treated as if they're mutually exclusive, when they're actually complementary. To be more specific, I don't actually like Jim Moray's version of Lord Bateman, but I'm immeasurably grateful to him for not only recording it but doing something sonically interesting with it - because it was through his recording that I discovered that song, & it was through his interpretation* of it that I became fascinated with it. Having listened to the track repeatedly & listened to other versions of the song, I find it's the other versions that I prefer - but if it wasn't for Jim M's version I would never have had any interest in seeking out those other versions.

A couple of people have said that versions of folk songs in 'contemporary' styles will date, just as 'modern' versions from the 1960s and 1970s have dated; and other people have said that, although those versions have dated, the songs have survived. What I want to say is that that's actually *how* the songs have survived - and how they will survive. As far as I'm concerned, the songs don't need new arrangements - the plain, spare, unadorned readings of artists like Nic Jones, June Tabor and Tony Rose are all the adornment they need (and some would say we should eschew even that level of frippery and stick to the source singers). But I'm speaking (now) as someone who already loves the songs. To anyone who hasn't already acquired the taste, new arrangements are exactly what the songs need, and will continue to need. (Sweet England is the only folk CD I've dared to play in the car with my family - in that context there's something very satisfying about the bit where the beats drop in on Early One Morning...)

I also just wanted to say that Jim Moray won my eternal respect and gratitude by making one small modification to On One April Morning -

Young men are false and we seldom do prove true

Anyone else want to volunteer to sing that version?

*Textually, it has to be said, Jim M's Bateman is very orthodox - Child 53L word for word.