lamarca: a couple of minor additions: The Carthy/Simon dispute went to court and was decided in Carthy's favour (he says the settlement paid off his mortgage; given that his house was fairly modest this clearly wasn't a vast sum). And more significantly, Carthy insists (and I don't know anyone who knows the man who doesn't accept this) that he ONLY took action because Simon was attempting to claim copyright in a traditional song.

And Dr John I can assure you that many who "enjoy good interpretation of tradition music" love June Tabor; in that part of her repetoire where she performs Trad (in its folk rather than jazz meaning) straight she does so better than anyone else mentioned here. Of your list I'd certainly agree with Martyn W-R and Johny Handle, probably with Nancy Kerr and James Fagin (only that's moving away from solo interpretation) but feel less happy with the others (Carthy live I'd agree, but I find many of his recent recordings have similar shortcomings to Dave Burland's).

G.