"the future of folk is safe with such young musicians"
I don't wish to rock the boat again, but for me, folk song is too important to let thi pass without comment
Doran is, as you say id siklful at what he does and will become better, but his approach, in turng folk songs into skilfully produced pieces of music have been long tried and have failed dismally on the English scene -
Carthy, Rose and others based their performances on it and made their mark - they produced many copyists
Despite this, the fortunes of English narrative song have declined steadily to the point of disappearing - I hear echoes of Carthy in his approach - music rather than song
The English and Scots song traditions are narrative - that is why they survived as stories and were never accompanied
Over-accompany a folk song and it becomes something else - a pleasant (or not) piece of music)
This may or may not benefit the singer (depending on popular tase) but it does nothing for the tradition and it is certainly not what today's young people are looking for
To suggest it is a self indulgence of our generation rather than an attempt to pass on these songs or future use - the Irish youngsters are taking up the songs as traditional storytelling pieces big-time and the tradition is on a roll, rather than just limping along
My opinion, of course
Jim Carroll