I'm very interested in this thread as I have been looking at folksong as sung by Southern English gypsies for some years and have some ideas on the subject. I think that the gypsy contribution to English folksong is very underappreciated. Lots of the Sussex singers, including Pop Maynard, had frequent singarounds with travellers, and they learnt songs from each other. Fred Jordan learnt songs from travellers and I'm sure that a host of other traditional English singers did as well. What travellers/gypsies bring to the table is:

- a spontaneous attitude towards singing
- commitment to tone of voice, holding the audience and telling the story in a dramatic way
- preservation of lots of old ballads
- preservation of lots of old modal tunes

Whilst I would not necessarily encourage non-gypsies to sing like gypsies, I think there is a lot that one can learn from listening to recordings on Topic and Musical Traditions of gypsies and hearing how they don't just sing the songs but live them. There is an argument that the American crooning style is based on British traveller singing, and I hear similarities between the voice projection of some Appalachian singers and some traveller singers - they sing it high and sing it out.

I'm no expert on the scene in Scotland or Ireland but I have the impression that in the former at least, there is more respect for the traveller role as tradition bearer, and that some travellers such as Stanley Robertson are taken seriously as contributors to Scottish tradition as a whole.

Gypsy culture is little respected in England and is in fact actively discouraged. 10 years ago I could listen to good traveller singarounds at the gypsy horse fair at Stow-in-the-Wold in Gloucestershire, but these days all the pubs in town and most of the shops close for fair week. This is because of the (supposed) bad behaviour of some of the travellers at Stow. But when does crime prevention become prejudice?

I'm not saying that all gypsies are angels - far from it - and a minority are a social nuisance, but the same could be said of the behaviour of a lot of non-gypsies.

Another point to mention is that English gypsies themselves do not value their old (or 'folk') songs. Most want to sing C & W these days. However, one of my high spots of last summer was to spend time with the Orchard/Birch family at the Dartmoor Folk Festival, listening to their singing (mainly folk songs) and melodeon playing and watching their step dancing. Pure delight and great ambassadors for English folk music.

Sorry to advertise but I do know a bit about the subject and have put together a workshop on English traveller music at http://www.cmarge.demon.co.uk/gwilym/Stepaway.html for those who want to know more.

Gwilym