Jim,
Peter Kennedy in a discussion with Mike Yates dismissed Bob Blake,the reason, he had suspicion that he had not learned his songs orally, but from books.
mike yates collected songs from Bob Blake, thinking he was a traditional singer[IMO that is one who learned his songs orally from his local community/or family]
would Yates have collected the songs[INTHE FIRST PLACE] if he had known Blake was not a traditional singer?I DOUBT IT.
" We certainly never recorded a singer who didn't learn some of his or her songs from a 'ballad"That is a red herring.
do you agree that collectors, yourself included do not collect songs from revivalists, but collect songs from those people who have learned their songs orally from their family or local community such as Walter Pardon, that is how they define a traditional singer, it is not relevant that some of those songs were originally learned from song sheets , yet those such as Bob Blake who learned songs from books orsongsheets in the twentieth century were dismissed by Kennedy, and I suspect would never have been collected in the first place if Yates had known Blake was not a traditional singer.