I have had occasion to disagree with Jim Carroll on the subject of Ewan McColl's sainthood(or otherwise), but I must say his contributions to this thread are illuminating and help to clarify things for a lot of people.
This is an interesting thread, but marred (as always) by the ill-temper of some conributors. What I find really silly is the continuous attacks on Musical Tradition's habit of keeping files, as if this is some kind of disreputable surveillance activity. Personally, I can't imagine how you run a magazine without keeping files.
Anway, I have just had to tidy up my spare bedroom for some guest, and it was looking more like Tutankahmen's tomb(minus the gold) than a bedroom. In the process I had to move(and look into) about twenty large banana boxes full of papers, and I can safely say that I have got files on pretty much everybody active in the folk revival since c1960. And a lot of that is gossipy private letters.So watch out!