Shimrod, I just love the way you tell people "you have no right to criticise me" whilst laying into them. If you're going to throw stones, I'd stay out of that glass house. Oh, and nice move in putting someone off staying around on Mudcat - that's one more person who's started getting interested in folk music, wanting to know more and talk to people here about it, and your response is "piss off back to your easy-listening pop music where you belong, newbie".

Countess, thanks for the info about Lakeman. Interesting stuff. I guess Harding and co are dependent (at least to some extent) for knowing whether something is "traditional" by whether it's listed as "traditional" in the track details on the album. I think they should have excluded it from the list though, since it clearly was written by him.

Still, it's an interesting position from Lakeman. Even if it's a traditional story, he's spent some time arranging it and writing the words, so he's got good grounds for claiming ownership if he'd wanted to. Whether you think it's a put-on or whether you think it's a genuine thing from respect for the traditions he's based the song on, the fact remains that he's passed up a fair sum of money by doing that.

Graham.