"Most of your heroes used PRS to protect their commercial interest. "
Can't speak for others Muskie - most of those I know do no such thing.
Our collection is housed with the British Library, The Irish Traditional Music Archive and The Irish Folklore Archive at U.C.D.
It has been put there with instructions to make it available to all interested.
Our West Clare collection of 400 plus songs is about to go up on the County Library website along with photographs, notes and background information.
As virtually all the performers we have recorded are now dead, any money from the nearly two dozen albums we have participated in assembling is automatically donated to The Irish Traditional Music Archive - in the past it has gone to the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library and The British Library.
I don't acctually know of one collector who has made anything beyond covering costs in the production of such albums (apart from Peter Kennedy).
P.R.S. and I.M.R.O have only been allowed to get their predatory foot in the folk door thanks to anything goes merchants like yourself.
This has never been about '54 - it's all about honesty and integrity and pig-in-a-poke sales.
Nobody has ever suggested that anybody, club organiser, singer.... whoever, should adhere to anything other than music and song that bears soe ersemblence to 'folk' - that is a somewhat dishonest invention of people who appear not to know what folk music is, not particularly care.
THe term is now being used as a dustbin to dump anything that takes any particular wannabe's fancy.
"Folk song is enjoying a huge revival" - yeah, sure it is!!!
I've just counted and attempted to assess the (now monthly, once weekly) folk song clubs available to me the next time I visit Britain
Can't wait!!
Jim Carroll