Many good points made. However, I have to confess that a lot of this sounds so white, liberal middle class...the sort of people who love to hear nice, safe "folk music" but would die if they had to actually live it.

Each singer sings a song because they empathise with it it some way. Either for a story, a message or simply the beauty of tune or lyrics. Once you decide to sing a song you have to be true to it. There are plenty of traditional songs that I wouldn't sing because I just think they are crap, or I can't relate to the story within...Scarborough Fair, Outlandish Night, Matt Hyland, to name a few. Same attitude with modern songs.

But someone else will see something in them that I don't and therefore should sing them with all their heart. So what if it is perceived in a different age as racist? And, as has been pointed out, the context and motive of the singer is more important. I would say it is more important than the perceived "feelings" of the audience. What do we make of the local Tory councillor who likes to pop down his local club and sing the Gresford Disaster?

The audience is there to hear you. They take a chance.
To change words because they don't fit our western, liberal, middle class sense of contrived morals is ridiculous. I don't agree with incest, but the Sheath and Knife is a cracking story...