I'm sorry Ron but you really have lost me. You seem to be contradicting the opposite of what I have said.
Snail - the point is that folk music should be a living tradition.
Yes. Didn't I just say that the Coppers and the people that have learnt their songs from them are a living trdition?
If the Copper Family were collecting today, wouldn't they be using modern technology for their sources?
Yes, of course they would. Bob used a tape recorder in the fifties. Have I said otherwise?
You are looking at the Copper Family from a perspective set in time.
A time stretching from Brasser's book through the Central Club in the seventies to Bob's grandchildren at the Royal Oak next month to an as yet unspecified selection of the family at the Lewes Arms in October. Set in time?
The family collected songs for centuries, according to the stories I heard Bob Copper tell. The point of this discussion was defining source singers. Are we locked in time were we only consider the music of a distant past? When the collectors of the early 20th century gathered their songs, weren't the songs part of a living tradition of their source singers? They were not considered museum pieces at the time of their collection.
Apart from whether it is possible to define source singers, I don't understand why you think I disagree with any of that.