To answer Shambles question, there is a downside to collecting Folk songs that showed itself in the mid 20th century.
I was sat on a permanent Gypsy site in Dorset with Mr Danny Cooper, and Queen Caroline Hughes daughter Mrs. Carrie Warren. I was assured that they knew all the songs. When I asked for a rendition Danny Cooper said 'We can sing them OK, but we don't need to' upon further enquiry he said 'We don't need to sing them, we've got this.' and produced Peter Kennedy's cassette tape of Caroline Hughes and proceeded to play it.
There is no easy answer to the question, and no one is to blame. Unfortunately there is no good or bad, right or wrong answer. Just an uneasy subjectivity.
So what is left behind? Well sometimes a pride and satisfaction for the singer, and sometimes the opposite, when Carrie Warren hears her mothers song 'Sheep Crook and Black dog' sung by a Folk Rock band on the radio, and her family are not even recognised. 'We ain't going to be made a fool of again.' she said to me. 'No one can own a traditional song' said an incredulous singer in a Folk event as the story went over his head. Every action has a reaction, we just have to live with it.