From the sound of it you would enjoy the introduction to the Joe Heaney interview, which went out as part of the same project as The Road From Connemara (http://www.mustrad.org.uk/articles/heaney.htm). It includes the CD booklet introduction, but is mainly concerned with analysing MacColl's theoretical and ideological perspective, in the light of the Heaney interview.

You might also want to look at my overview of the radio ballads, which coincided with the Topic releases of a few years ago (http://www.mustrad.org.uk/reviews/rad_bal.htm), and which analysed the structure and format of the radio ballads in the light of the social and economic climate of the day.

In both cases I tried to break new ground and tried to inject a bit of reason in areas where pre-existing commentaries were either non-existent or sterile.