"I've got certain issues with the VOTP series"

You're not the only one, Sean - some of those criticisms have been voiced by others. However, my point was that Reg Hall had made a particular effort to focus on the singers and their art, even at the expense of the more usual song-focussed approach.

I understand what you're saying about the original conception of 'folklore', the mismatch between the academic and the vernacular (you could say much the same for the disciplines of anthropology and sociology, mind you), and the disdainful attitude of F. J. Child - who never heard his ballads sung by anyone - towards the 'degenerative' effect of ongoing oral tradition. What I don't accept is that attitudes of collectors and folk revivalists in general haven't altered in 100-odd years. Even Cecil Sharp, as I've tried to point out (his status as pantomime villain has become drearily tedious, whatever his undoubted failings), was learning on the job as far as valuing the artistry of the singers he met was concerned.