"Jim's genre is very narrow."
Blame it on all those traditional singers David - they told us what they felt about their songs - we recorded wite a few of them saying exactly that
Comparing them to other traditions proves nothing, it really doesn't
Our oral tradition is overwhelmingly unaccompanied - why?
Were our singers unable to walk and chew gum at the same time like thir American, Spanish, Eastern European, Asisia counterparts were?
What with their being the composers of their folk songs, they really must have been a dim lot!!

The proof of the pudding is really in the eating - just examine the songs themselves - Lomax's Cantometrics team described them as "word intensive" - the emphasis of their construction being in the text of the song
This doesn't mean that the tune is unimportant - of course it is - it is the vehicle on which the song is carried

Our songs fall into two major categories - lyrical and narrative - the former tends to concentrate on description and emotion, while the latter tells the story
Ireland has a great deal for lyrical songs than Britian - the British tradition is largely a narrative one - the ballads intensively so
An over-concentraion on the tune is very much a revival thing - not even Irish singers, for all the reputation Ireland has for highly skilled instrumentation, has a history of accompanied singing, though the very lyrical Irish language singers did fo in for ornamentation (though not as much as today's singers do)

This attitude was rammed home to us way back when we spent an afternoon with two elderly brothers with a large repertoir of traditional songs between them

Theyd sung about a dozen for us, when one, after he'd sung a broken token song, siad, "Isn't that a great air?"
It was - the problem was that he'd used the same one for five other of his songs
THis was a family steeped in the local musical, song and storytelling traditions so it wasn't as if they were mindlessly repeating their songs
Walter ardon was noted for the rareness of his tunes, but at no time did they dominate his songs
He played the melodeon and the fiddle but at no time did he ever attempt to accompany them
It's all in the pudding
Jim