kytrad, thanks so much for your informative post.

The three traditional, yet very different, STYLES of Robertson, Strachan, and Ritchie go a long way toward defining 19th-20th Century trad singing in the English-speaking world.

Nobody's delivery is more lyrically intense than Jeanne Robertson's, more wryly personable than John Strachan's, or more subtly stoic than Jean Ritchie's.

Ewan MacColl was part trad singer and part "interpreter," and not everyone appreciates his sense of drama as much as I do. A. L. Lloyd had still less claim than MacColl to be "trad," but he could admirably communicate the highs and lows of a story.

The other singers I mentioned, outstanding performers in their own right,learned much of their ballad artistry from these greats.