Q

When you say "I doubt that your definition has much currency in the United States," which one are you talking about? If you read my first post I defined broadsides as sheets printed on one side only. As you will see, this is identical to the definition in the OED which you somehow seem to think refutes what I have said.

There does seem to be a difference in the British and American usage of the term broadsheet. If you want both perspectives you can read, for example, Leslie Shepard's The Broadside Ballad, which on page 23 states:

A broadside is simply a sheet of paper with printing on one side. The term broadsheet has often been used instead of broadside, especially in relation to ballad broadsides. However, the modern trend in American bibliography assigns a special meaning. According to MacMurtrie (instructions for the descriptions of broadsides, American imprints inventory, 1939): "The broadsheet is a single piece of paper printed on both sides. Except for the fact that the text is carried overto a second page a broadsheet is similar to a broadside."

Your confusion also seems to stem from the fact that I am sometimes talking about broadside ballads rather than simply broadsides. This, for example, was the category which Laws was defining. "Narrative" is only used to distinguish broadside ballads from the great range of other materials published on broadsides. The other songs would be called "broadside songs" or simply "songs." As you may know, less classificatory work has been done on lyric songs than on ballads, so the terms are used in looser way. But you would not call a non-narrative song published on a broadside a "broadside ballad."

Now, to go onto the other things I have said about the "Broadside Ballad," I assure you it is typical in folklore studies in the United States to consider songs published in garlands and broadsheets, as well as those published on broadsides proper, in this category. My definitions of broadsides and broadside ballads, which you believe have no currency in the United States, were taught to me in the folklore department at the University of Pennsylvania by Kenneth S. Goldstein, who when alive was the foremost expert on broadside ballads and songs in this country.

Finally, when you say:

I see no need, on the part of a student of song, for a term more limiting than- a sheet printed on one or both... containing
a poem, a song or songs.

I would have to ask: what on earth are you talking about? When did I advance a more limiting definition than that for "broadside?"