Cap'n,
You say you respect my work as a collector - without wishing to offend (for a change) I don't need your respect - we did what we did because we enjoyed it - meeting the old singers. hearing what they had to say, recording their songs, just enjoying their company.
Sure, we thought it worthwhile, but any collector who tells you they didn't get a buzz from it is telling porkies.
If there is any respect on offer, perhaps it might be directed at the old singers who gave us the raw material to work with - and the best way to respect them is to look after what they've given us and see that it gets passed on in a state that future generations can enjoy it the way we have.
I get a little hacked off with people who say they don't like traditional singers because they're old; god save us all from old age. If we can't learn anything from Sam Larner or Phil Tanner, we're in the wrong game.
I also get hacked off with singers who simper onto their feet and say "I'd like to sing a Martin Carthy song or a Christy Moore song, and then sing a perfectly recognisable traditional song. This was summed up for me beautifully when I was at a club in London where a young woman said, "I'd like to sing a song I got from Martin (first name terms); she then sang The Barley Straw. I was in a bit of a bad mood (I think Thatcher had just won a third term), so I said "didn't Harry Cox sing that?"
She replied, "Oh, does he; did he get it from Martin too?"
I agree with Gervase and all those who say do it well because it's worth it. As much as I enjoyed the atmosphere of a folk club my main reason for making the effort was always to hear good songs well sung, the companiability was a bonus. If you do it as a get together, why confine it to folk song; why not run a weekly whist drive or a Tupperware party?
Jim Carroll
PS The last club I was in was The Cork Folk Club; I enjoyed it. Ireland was lucky to have good traditional singers much later than Britain and many of the younger singers benefited from sitting in with them and learning from the fount.
The Irish singing scene has its own problems but they tend not to be lack of skill or failure to take the music and song seriously,