I see what Jerry means about songs like "Fannin Street", but I kinda agree with Clinton..though naturally, I have my 'preferred' versions.

I like the way Burl Ives did "Darlin' Corey" (a slower, minor key thing) better than the zippy versions by various Bluegrass bands.

Several songs done years ago by Richard Dyer-Bennet stick in my head as THE way I expect to hear them..maybe because I heard them first, maybe because he was just a pretty good judge of material (yes, I know he was not terribly 'trad' about some things)

I recently heard Johnny Collins and Jim Mageean do "Shawnee Town", and found it by far the best version I have heard, but that is just my personal taste. I'd like to think of it as "definitive", but that term seems 'almost' to be reserved as a synonym for "most popular", as if popular vote determines value.

Hard question to deal with,Jerry.