Until the mid 70s, if you randomly gathered 500 folkies together in Australia, I'd reckon only about 100 of them would have been players of instruments, and most of that 100 would have been singers accompanying themselves with guitars. So most of the sessions were singing sessions with no instrumental accompaniment.

And they were truly awesome. The PLT at the National in Melbourne, '73 had more than 800 singing in Humphrey Trantor's workshop on rounds and canons and later on, the same number singing spirituals. The main bar of the (now demolished) pub under the Sydney Harbour Bridge had the same number of singers going for about 8 hours on shanties and choruses during the National in '75.

As Barry put it so colourfully, some couldn't carry a note in a bucket but the total effect was truly musical, in every way. As were Jeannie Lewis and Margret Roadknight in their (usually, but not always) accompanied performances.

Cheers, Rowan