Bill - as far as I am concerned trad is trad. To me that means somebody must've written this song but we don't know who. And then it got changed around a bit as people remembered it in different ways. If a song is not 'trad' then people here will tell you, rightly so as we should always point out who wrote a particular song.

There are a few songs that are 'almost trad', in that somebody wrote it and almost everyone doesn't know who. There's a current thread on 'Rocky Road to Dublin', a song I would have called 'trad', but know I know different.

But songs don't write themselves. It just that we forget who wrote them, and they come down through the oral tradition in different versions; somebody might change the tune, somebody might write an extra verse, somebody might mishear a word or two.

It's best not to get too tied down to labels. I know we need them if someone asks us 'what sort of songs do you sing?' But then we get into another discussion about 'what is folk music?' Don't go there!

I applaud your aim to specialise on traditional material. I love traditional music. But it's not the only music that I love. Because I use bouzouki or melodeon for accompaniment, and because both I and my partner Maggie love harmony singing, any song we do will be a bit different to any recorded version.

I'll sing owt, me!