I can't keep up with this thread any more, but many thanks to Joe for putting Jim's two pieces on Walter Pardon somewhere I could download them. Fascinating and thorough - and I don't get any hint of the interviewer 'leading' the interviewee.

I've long been aware of Walter's tendency to drift slightly sharp during the course of some songs, but that doesn't make him any less wonderful a singer. I took Steve's earlier comment about the dearth of other 'source singers' around at the time WP came to our attention to mean that no-one was really expecting to find any more significant traditional singers at all by that time - let alone one this good with such a large and high-quality repertoire.