I lived in a small village in North Devon... out in the wilds so to speak. All the farmers and labourers would get together to do the harvest one one farm.. then all would move on to the next and so on until all the farms had been harvested. Every Friday night was the end of each harvesting week and all the men would gather at one farm in a barn where cider and ale were in abundance... all would drink as much as they could (or couldn't might be a better explanation) All the men were expected to sing... whether they were accomplished singers or not... and all were clapped for their efforts..... my dad would wait until everyone was so under the influence that they wouldn't notice how bad his singing was. I was very young then... from eight yrs old until I was 11 and went away to boarding school..... (because I was a bit clever). I used to drive the horse and cart whilst the men loaded it with stooks of corn... I also attended the booze up and drunk cider at that young age..... my father having to carry me home many times.... I also was expected to sing. In the early seventies I found a love for Folk Clubbing as I had a good grounding and learnt many songs whilst celebrating the harvest.
If you want to know how those 'barn singing sessions' appeared... take a watch of the film of Thomas Hardys novel "Far from the Madding Crowd".. there is a typical session in it.
It seemed the most natural thing in the world for me to get into the Folk Club scene once I had discovered it.