"not everyone was a ploughman or a milkmaid. "
Sorry - missed a bit
The only people to have mentioned "not everyone was a ploughmen or milkmaids (or "swains and shepherdesses" are those ridiculing the suggestion that working people made these songs - it has long been established ploy to 'romanticise' the opposition
Our work was with small farmers, agricultural labourers, roadwokers... et al.
WE even recorded fishermen and a village carpenter!
Jim Carroll