Kytrad, from all that's gone before in this thread, I think we're reasonably safe defining the North East as the area between Berwick and Teesside, particularly centred round Newcastle, Gateshead, Sunderland and Durham. Hate defining things like this, though, because someone's bound to tell me I'm wrong.

As for whether songs can become too hackneyed to play ... maybe it depends on how you do them? I didn't honestly think I could ever be surprised by "Dance to your Daddy" and then along come Nancy Kerr and James Fagan with a cracking arrangement that puts a completely new twist on it. Also, I know Jim Moray's a bit in the doghouse on Mudcat at the moment after some unwise comments in the Folk Britannia programmes, but his version of "Early One Morning" communicates words that had been rendered meaningless by a century or so of schoolkids being force-fed it as a singalong.