Roberto, I sincerely hope you're wrong that interest in the real traditional stuff is numerically shrinking.

In my own case I get fiercer & fiercer all the time in devotion to authentic tradition (a bit difficult to define I admit). And I would think the DT is playing a role in spreading traditional songs, as well as many that are non-. Hopefully there are MORE traditional fans around, not less. though how you would measure that I have no idea.

I do think, though, that using recordings as a reference is a gigantic problem!!! As everyone's dollars shrink and CDs get dearer (and go out of print way fast), few of us have the resources to stay current on good recorded versions.

Hence when somebody references a record ("Mocky Floptoe has the best version of 'Ane Night or Twa Awa'' waxed in 100 years; it's on Purple Vervet Records out of Namooth, Nova Scotia--I'm pretty sure it was still available in 1997" or words to that effect) it is often hard to locate specific recorded versions.

And yet hearing the song is a million times better than seeing its text and hearing a midi tune sample however well done. What's needed is an archive of recorded versions that is as authoritative as the DT is for printed ones. Alas this runs into all kinds of problems with not just copyright but publication rights, and is probably impractical for that reason. Still I'd love to see a website devoted to an encylopedic archive of the best traditional song recordings--if they could not be complete, even samples would be helpful.

As to Elizabeth Stewart, being a Stewart, maybe there's a chance that recording will become more generally available. But who's got money to buy them all anyway? An archive is the answer if somebody can figure out how to do it.