Richard, Topic's Voice of the People series (twenty of them!) are probably the best, having a terrific variety of songs, styles, etc. of traditional (i.e. 'source') performers, with information galore, and helpfully, the words of the songs as well, so you don't have to 'translate' from the recordings, just get the tunes in your head. You can find them on the Topic website here , then go to the 'Voice of the People' page. One or two of them are just music I think, but you can trawl through and decide which ones are most suitable for you.

And I think that perhaps that folk clubs, singaround and sessions are not the places to demonstrate this sort of knowledge and scholarship - that doesn't necessarily mean that none of the people concerned have it. The Folk Music Journal, and to a lesser extent English Dance and Song, both received automatically by EFDSS members, as well as such places as the Musical Traditions website mentioned above, will give you plenty of reading, and may also lead you to other publications that are available. If you see earlier books that you think might be interesting, they can often be found through sites like this
, which we've used so many times to find out of print tomes.

One other place to discover expert knowledge would be workshops, at festivals, or some clubs run them. Near you, Lewes would probably be the nearest, or Cecil Sharp House if you're prepared to brave the Great Wen.

See you at Broadstairs, I hope.

Barbara

Good luck on your voyage of discovery.

Barbara