I am listening to programme 3 right now, I have just heard Bonnie Milner singing The Dark Eyed Sailor.
The Apprentice Boy is pleasant sounding,but seems to concentrate[imo] too much on producing interesting musical variations rather than interpretation of the words, in stark contrast to the traditional unaccompanied female singer who follows, who interprets her song very well and then Joe Heaney who sings with great subtlety.
Willie Taylor has lovely harmonies,and is very good music but the story would have been interpreted better by a good solo singer,again part of the problem of harmony groups as against unaccompanied solo singers, the producer might have done better to have had the group sing a shanty[even though shanties were not often sung in harmony]
However This particular programme is interesting and has a varied approach, using unaccompanied traditional singers plus revival harmony singers, and very competent musicians, and despite my criticisms, I did enjoy the programme, and would like to thank all who were concerned in producing this programme.
I am now going to try and listen again to the others, thanks very much.