I've heard that ballad singers in North America are predominantly female, don't remember where I read this, but I do recall that no quantification was offered. But let's see, off the top of my head, there's Doug Wallin, Cass Wallin, Dillard Chandler, Nimrod Workman, Frank Proffitt, Hobart Smith, Roscoe Holcomb, Bascom Lamar Lunsford, Bill Cornett, J.D. Cornett, and I'm sure I'm forgetting many others, all of whom sang ballads, sometimes with accompaniment and sometimes not.

Not to mention coal miners and northern camp ballad singers.