"not that different to middle class folk protest singers of the 1960s revival..."
I really never knew any of them Rag - unless you count working class lads who managed to pass a few exams "middle Class"
I wore my feet to the bone and sang myself hoarse protesting - then went back to rewiring houses on Monday

"MacColl is not a source singer and does not do folk songs."
I said he didn't write folk songs - correction - he said that
"This cannot be be done by the deceased so it has to be done by live songwriters"
True - as pegy Seeger is still demonstrating
If these songs are to ahve an impact thet neees to come without the muical soup obscuring the message with noise and distraction - and in a narrative form that people are able to follow - the two put up don't do this - you are given words obscured by over-loud and distracting accompaniment
"They are all we have to keep us updated."
So Ed Pickford or Jim McLean or Jack warshaw or Sandra Kerr..... or all those other fine songwriters I remember have all popped their clogs - shit - and I never received a mass-card
"Whether you like them or not does not matter."
You are determined to ignore what I say, aren't you - it has nothing whatever to do with me liking anything
We are discussing this performer as "the Hope for folk music" - what he is doing may be skilful but it has sfa to do with folk song of any kind
I wish to Christ some pop performers wud make followable songs commenting on what's happening in the world instead of sneering at fund-raisers like Geldof for raising money for good causes
Doran is neither a protest singer nor an example of folk singing

"Jim knows the folk scene in his native country is looking more like pensioner pop"
Not sure where you think my native country is - I'm from Liverpool, though I leve in Ireland
I never mentioned pensioner-pop - I said the English scene had abandoned the older songs for the disposable pop-pap - is that what you mean by "pensioner-pop" ?
Sorry - you're not making sense

"finest folk song writers of the current era"
Nobody writes folk songs - they have to win their spurs by being taken up and processed by the people then passed on again - ad infinitum, before they earn the title 'folk' - that's what the term "folk" and "tradition" mean - it 's why the most prolific and skilful songwriter using traditional forms vehemently denied writing folk songs

Our folk scene was established on a widely recognised and respected type of song - that's why it was called the folk scene
Stop concentrating on that and you end up wandering round like the Hari Krisnas canting "I don't know what folk means any more"
The Irish song and music tradition has a healthy three generation future to look farward tio because it knows what its music is, can perform it, talk and write about in and over the last few years, begin to teach it without having to wait for the music industry to decide that they might be a few million to be made out of it
Jim