Very glad to see Bob Coltman's contribution above. Hope you are doing well, Bob. . .

I have just come from an amazing singers gathering at the northernmost point of Ireland. It was a gathering of about 150 people, a couple of guests but no "stars", just unaccompanied trad singing as far as the eye could see for three days. There was one Welsh singer that I heard on SUnday evening, sang one song, seemed to me to be a quite genuine traditional style. I do not know his name (though might be able to find out), and he only sang once.

There was a Welsh group about 25 years ago, first pointed out to me by ROy Harris, called Ar Log. I have wonderful record of theirs. It featured two brothers who played the triple harps. They also sang Welsh tradition, but I couldn't say how traditional it was stylistically.

Bob also speaks about Russian tradition being covered up by over arranging, which of course it was. But Dmitri Pokrovsky was finally able to break through the government wish to make everything into high art, got some support (I think maybe from Kruschev?) and collected absolutely amazing stuff out in the countryside. He got together an ensemble of singers who did the stuff in unabashedly powerful style. Arranged somewhat vocally, though this may have been authentic tradition, it bore all the earmarks of the real thing and was quite overwhelming. Definitely not "pop-ized". I have two recordings.

The place where therewas virtually a total wipe-out of real traditional forms, to the best of my knowledge, was Germany. There is no doubt that there was a real ruiral singing tradition 200 or 300 years ago, but classical music (Mozart and the like) became so popular throughout the country, that the older forms seem to have vanished except for some very pale remnants that kids would learn in school.

Jerry Epstein