A source singer is anyone you hear sing a song and it’s the first time you heard it. At least, that’s your source.

In essence, if there is evidence of a song as fitting the description of traditional, then none of the ones Ray mentions above, despite my huge admiration of them, could be THE source singer as they are out by up to hundreds of years. They are however the source for many people involved in the folk revival. In that, they are to be admired.

Tom Jones is a source singer, he’s the first I heard singing Green Green Grass of Home.

The thread is about as relevant to definitive agreement as starting a thread asking how many arseholes there are in a flock of sheep.