Ron
"I understand that he also knew the difference between true traditional folk songs and these oher styles. My question is, if you recorded Walter singing both styles, what would you label the record as?"
Sorry - just woken up - will try to join in later.
We didn't issue albums of Walter's songs, they were done by Bill Leader, then by Mike Yates. Most of our recordings of him were interviews of him talking about the songs and music.
Some of his his opinions are to be found and debated in two articles on the Musical Traditions website, by Mike Yates entitled 'The Other Songs' and by me, 'By Any Other Name'.
Mike's recordings were issued as 'Put a Bit of Powder on it Father' on the Musical Traditions label.
Walter learned virtually all his songs from his Uncle, Billy Gee and other members of his family. He took an interest in them as a young man, and when he returned from the army in 1946 began to write them down in notebooks. His notebooks indicate that he was differentiating between the different types of songs as early as 1948 and he spoke at length to us about the differences, both musically and poetically.   He referred to them as 'music hall' parlour ballads, popular songs and folk songs.      
Have taken the liberty of PM-ing you a copy of an article Pat and I wrote on Walter for a festschrift for collector Tom Munnelly last year.
More when I've woken up
Jim Carroll
PS It is not my intention to make people feel that their opinions are unwanted or invalid; it is not how I feel; I'm sure I get more out of arguments than I put into them.