Ewan did this with a number of his songs, most of which, not surprisingly, became classics.
The songs from The Travelling People were based on some of the actuality recorded from not just Belle, but other Travellers, Minty Smith and Caroline Hughes for instance.
Similarly, if you listen to the recordings of Sam Larner and Ronnie Balls made for Singing The Fishing you will hear phrases used in Shoals of Herring. Sam said of the song that he felt he'd known it all his life.
Peter Keenan's song (The Fight Game) drew from recordings of a Glaswegian boxer.
Elsewhere the much neglected 'Shellback' was based on field recordings of mariner Ben Bright.
The also neglected 'Tenant Farmer' came from a conversation about an eviction in the Scottish borders.
It is why his songs reflected the subjects they dealt with and were not pastishe copies
His least successful Radio Ballad songs (IMO) were those where he stood remote from the people he was dealing with (Body Blow and On The Edge); the actuality was fine but the songs don't seem to have stood the test of time.
Jim Carroll