"Sorry, Jim, I can't quite make the connection here"
Possibly none Steve, but in my experience the two THEORIES seem to go hand-in-hand.
As with the 'origins' of folk songs - we simply don't know and to give the impression that we do is, at the very least, misleading.
"Turncoat Walker?" is a very definitive phrase and one much in need of substatiation.
To me, Walker was someone who worked with a collector who produced the finest and most comprehensive collection of folk songs in Britain - from Abedeenshire. It makes sense to me that he was in a far better position than either you or I to judge whether Buchan's Aberdeenshire ballads are authentic or not.
To me, 'Turncoat' indicates the ability to change ones mind, an indespensible facility in the learning process, I would have thought!
As Jon Bartlett rightly says - the jury is still out, and has been sending out for tea and sandwiches for a long time.
Jim Carroll