Well said, Heather! Thanks for your interesting input - and I appreciate you following it up with Katie Howson too.

I find it fascinating that Frank Collins lived a fairly basic existence in the backblocks of country NSW yet managed to record himself playing some very danceable tunes in a tuneful fiddle style. Evidently his mother was from gypsy stock and his father taught him to play the fiddle. According to his daughter he often couldn't afford to replace broken strings and so would have to just play on those he had left.

cheers, Ian