Can we, please, get back to the original thread! Thank you Francesco for your imput. But, you say, " one question that will remain is why the gentlemen who have been the most injured by Sam's accompaniment haven't made the effort to write us an e - mail before getting on their high horses". When I started this thread (actually on the Musical Traditions website) I had no idea who had dubbed his banjo etc onto the field recordings. Rod Stradling of Musical Traditions found out and so I did send an email to this person. I then gave his reply on this thread. So, as I said, I did make an effort to make contact.

Perhaps you do not undrstand why I raised the point in the first place. It was nothing to do with copyright, but rather about what I thought was a lack of respect for the source singers. When I recorded these people I did so because I wanted people to be able to listen to "real" folksingers, such as Fred Jordan, Walter Pardon, Johnny Doughty etc. I never envisaged any others "improving" the singer's work with their own accompanyments. By all means, learn the songs from these recordings. Listen to how they were sung. And, by all means, sing the songs. But, please, show some respect.