As Jim says listen to the Sam Larner recording (can't lay my hands on it - so I can't quote chapter and verse but it is on CD) and you can virtually hear Sam Larner speaking the "Shoals of Herring" - "a shimmer we calls it, a shimmer of hearing".........

You can't do that stuff without training? So what training have all the others who came up through the revival had? Mike Waterson sang Tam Lin without any theatrical training. Never (as far as I know) went to Critics' Groups meetings. Ewan never even liked the Watersons at first thinking they were a copy of the Coppers. How wrong can you be. Now they appear on Peggy's tours of the UK. And will be there on Sunday at the next Shepley Spring Festival (blatant plug).

He was practised (he and Peggy were the first singers I ever saw to do scales before a performance) and he often sang "Highland Muster Roll" as a way of getting his voice going at the start of a performance; he was thoroughly professional; but I met him and saw his performances a number of times and he never struck me as an "act" no more than any other folk singer was anyway.

Never occurred to me? Nope I was busy listening to him perform.