I have no problem with someone in the folk world trying to get higher profile for the music and drawing attention to your own recording is one way of doing it. As for collecting - yes he has recorded songs from gypsy singers and he is a catalyst for promoting folk music. And he is the right side of 40!

No, he is not the first person to record songs from gypsies. Mike Yates and Jim Caroll have already been mentioned. You could also mention Alice Gillington, Cecil Sharp, Vaughan Williams, Peter Kennedy, Peter Shepheard, not forgetting yours truly, and others. I think Sam is building on the work of these collectors.

Tradsinger