Rick, I didn't say it was the blind leading the blind yet, merely that it has happened when a subject lost its focus. As for traditional ballad experts, they have their own subscription lists on the web and rarely contribute here, or even bother to look here. Several Mudcatters are on one of them. So are many quite famous professional folksingers and folklorists who have never contributed here, but who have been mentioned here more than once. Look at the intitials of the early contributors to the Mudcat database and see how many you can identify that are still around on the Forum. One rarely hears anything now from Murray on Saltspring, and when it comes to Scots songs there's never been another contributor to this Forum that is as knowledgable on the subject.