Hi Kevin,

you might be interested in the following. About 30 years ago I was recording material from the Scottish Traveller Duncan Williamson. On one occasion he asked me to put the recording machine on. I did so and Duncan began singing a very complete version of the Child Ballad The Farmer's Curst Wife. It immediately struck me that this was the version, word for word and note for note, as sung by the Appalachian singer E. C. Ball. Ball had been recorded by several collectors including Alan Lomax and John Cohen and recordings of him singing this ballad had appeared, over the years, on various LPs and CDs. At one time Duncan had been married to an American folklorist and I presume that at some point he had heard one of the E. C. Ball recordings. Duncan had little interest in where the song came from. He had heard it, liked it, learnt it and enjoyed singing it.