"And perhaps all the folk clubs up a"
Perhaps clubs that go in for a mish-mash should - it says what they do and as far as I'm concerned it would act as a warning for those who don't go in for such a mix to stay away.
Let's face it John - what you are looking for is for me to say "call it folk", which, as far as I am concerned, it isn't - not because you are not using folk material, but because, given your own examples, it sounds nothing like the folk music I have been listening to for the last 50 years - that is not a criticism, just an assessment of the way you choose to play it - your choice entirely, but not mine.
Our songs tend to be narrative - when I said I couldn't follow the words of your songs, I was telling the truth.
I could only catch part of Blackleg Miner - the second one I couldn't make out at all - I mistook it for ''I'll Tell me Ma', which you appear to have based it on.
Our song tradition in Britain is word-based - largely narrative - if you can't follow the words, they don't work as folk songs.
There is nothing "wrong" with the way you perform them - they show a degree of skill musically and you've obviously worked on them, but for me, they are something other than folk songs because they have lost the basic function of all our folk songs, the communication of ideas and emotions via language.
That they are not to my personal taste is immaterial -I have no doubt that they give others pleasure - not me - so what?
Personal taste has never been a part of this argument as far as I'm concerned.
Jim Carroll