Actually, I think most people who sing Cyril Tawney songs learned/adapted them from the singing of others (eg. in clubs, etc.), largely because that's almost the only context in which his songs can be readily heard these days (anybody tried to get hold of his recordings of his own songs in recent years?? You don't find them in HMV). I've known Sally Free and Easy and several other Tawney compositions for many years, but only heard the original recording for the first time last week on Youtube.

Somebody told me recently that there's a Bob Dylan bootleg CD somewhere with a very young Dylan singing Sally...; which is credited on the sleeve as "Trad"...and why not??