My only problem is that I am a peasant deeper in debt every day and the collection is pricey....If you like Brannigan who is simply wonderful try ebay where I recently obtained two of his disks....
A great singer.

A word about the operatic delivery aspect.

The music of Northumbria went through many phases. Most of the songs created were created in the late 19th century.
A fair perportion of these were created as newspaper pieces and one wonderes whether they were ever sung although tune names are provided.

These are important as they build on the earlier tradition using bits of it as in a tinker toy set.

Another purpose for the creation of songs was for music hall performance.
These performances had their own standards. Some were intended to be humerous but others could be performed more classically as parlor song hits. See the work of joe wilson and others for these.

Again they were built of the bits and pieces of the earlier tradition but the modes of presentation were authentic for the time. Were they sung more casually? Maybe....

Yet another purpose for song creation was driven by publishers wishing to put out songbooks. A good number of the 19th century newcastle song writers were in fact printers or had worked in publishing.

Tommy Armstrong wrote his songs for performance over beer in the pubs and often as commissions....Even here they tend to be well suited for ballad performance rather than spontanious singing although this may have also occured. They are more structured than for example a traditional drinking ditty often including lengthy recitations.

Why were these collections created

Of course they could be used for singing in the home or in the parlor. Another purpose was to collect the songs which were printed one at a time in the papers or on broadsides. Song writers would run in off the streets to sell a new song as well.....

My recent interest however, is in another purpose driving all of this.
This purpose could well have been city promotion. Newcastle grew at an amazing rate from 1790-1900. Although many of the political scandals are also captured in the songs most songs portray the city as a quaint and canny place filled with eccentrics, great opportunities to endulge in romantic observation of these and of course there is the wild bar scene.....With these come a fair number of romantic descriptions of the environs. This dimension of song collections make them prime resources for those wising to develop intrest in town expansion. Great things for the cocknies from Lunnen getting off the train with an inclanation to stay.....

Conrad