Over the years I have watched the folk scene turn into something very different from what it was in the 1950'
i blame agents and the attitudes of some performers who treat the songs and performing as if the only thing that matters is the furtherance of their own career.
Howver,Martin Carthy encapsulated the attitude IN A COMMENT when he described how he was travelling on a train[ in the late fifdties or early sixties] and pete stanleys sister was playing freight train and refused to show him how it was played.So it seems that even back then not everybody was helpful and not everybody shared information or techniques