And of course the guy singing at home was singing about things that were relevant to his life and times. What's wrong with us singing about things that are relevant to ours?

The only difference is that the 'old' songs have had time to be honed and shaped by the 'tradition' - i.e. by being sung many times by many different people, some good, some not-so-good. Who's to say for sure that, in maybe a couple of centuries' time, people won't be singing one of Ralph's or Harvey's, and describing them as 'traditional'?

All things are relative.

Just an opinion, anyone who dun't like it can bite me.