"It's a silly label - it fully embraces that - holier than thou mentality."

All words are labels. If we are to discuss any topic (and traditional singing is a topic as worthy as any of discussion) then we requre a terminology. "Traditional singer" - by which I mean the Walter Pardons, Sam Larners and Phoebe Smiths of this world - is a perfectly reputable term implying no "holier than thou" mentality whatever. Some people prefer to use the term "source singer" for this category, in order to avoid the confusion that arises when "traditional singer" is used to mean "singer of traditional songs", but - as another Mudcat thread demonstrated - other people find problems with this term, too. Whether the singers concerned called themselves "traditional" (I daresay none of them did) is immaterial.

Incidentally, Jim Carroll's last paragraph in his posting of 3.25 puts very well the reasons why it's meaningless to discuss new songs "entering the tradition".