I cant think of any truly traditional songs in the British folksong canon that really give an LGBT perspective.The "cross-dressing" songs,like The Handsome Cabin Boy etc are,it seems to me, going into taboo areas for the entertainment of the listener - shock value,even.The Tailor's Britches is the only song I can recall without working too hard on it,about male-female cross-dressing - and he is obviously an object of ridicule in the song.Even though I love trad song and storytelling,one criticism one might make of it is the utterly conventional conservative moral outlook on social life - traditional storytelling is even worse, for all its fairies and ghosts.Its stuck somewhere between 1837 and the 1950s.The songs on the subject of LGBT identity are being written today e.g. by O'Hooley and Tildow, and, dare I say it, my own "Canal Street" about the Manchester village. Whether they will survive or not is another matter,- even I've got tired of singing "Canal Street".
I liked the interview, and the music's good - although I'm not sure we need any more versions of Nic Jones classics,surely Martin Simpson has covered them all at least twice already.
Gay identity is not always apparent in a performer, but if you're transgender,like me - it's a big part of the performance.I must say,over here, I've found the folk world ,on the whole remarkably accepting.