Thanks Ian- so ballads are songs sung while dancing... :0)

We had very interesting discussions with Kevin and Ellen Mitchell at the Four Fools festival, Chorley recently in their ballad workshop, as to what was and what wasn't a ballad. Generally taken now to mean, as above, a narrative song i.e. it tells a story. But often a song could be telling just part of a story, and seem more akin to lyric poetry in that it describes a scene rather than a whole story. Very interesting!

And as Kevin said in the recent 'Sharper than the Thorn' ballad concert tour, organised by Folkworks: "This one isn't a ballad, but I won't tell anyone if you don't...!"

Noreen
(and thank you, Mary in Ky!)