Moving slightly off target -- I'm fascinated by the marriage of new words to traditional tunes, and the necessary adaptations. (Tried it once myself with a good set of words from the Greig-Duncan collection whose tunes didn't satisfy -- and the more I could hear the rhythm of the text, the closer I came to an elusive tune from traditional memory. So eventually I found a way to match them both.)

Can Jim perhaps help with any information about the song The Tenant Farmer? This is a great set of words from MacColl, matched with a most evocative tune which sounds as if it wouldn't be out of place in a traditional song. But all that is said in The Essential Ewan MacColl Songbook is 'words and music by Ewan MacColl' -- though there is a lovely explanation of how the song came to be written, as a summary of the life of Ewan and Peggy's nearest neighbour when they had a cottage near Lockerbie.