Ron,
"Would you place the CD in any catagory other than "folk"?"
That's what these threads are about really.
Personally, I wouldn't issue them - not that I have anything against them, but they are not my field; I simply don't have the knowledge to comment on them or to judge their importance. I certainly don't categorise them as folk, but this doesn't mean they have no entertainment value, nor are of interest.
I value them as an important part of our work with singers and have never refused them or attempted to avoid recording them. Walter's repertoire of music hall material was particularly interesting in that they were early pieces, many of which he had learned from a neighbour, Harry Sexton. Walter had a phenomenal memory and absorbed many of his songs without consciously setting out to learn them. He took great pride in his traditional repertoire and often commented that he didn't understand why people insisted on asking for "that other stuff".
Blind Traveller woman, Mary Delaney, gave us around 100 traditional songs and knew at least another 100 which we never got round to recording. She could have doubled that number again with country and western and Irish pop songs which she refused point-blank to sing for us. She told us "they are not the songs you want" and said "they have the old songs destroyed".
When we asked her why she learned them she said they were the ones "the lads" (the other Travellers) asked for in the pub.
Like Walter, Mary had a phenomenal memory and could retain a song after only one hearing.
I believe that much of the confusion that seems to exist around the question of definition stems from the fact that we have very little recorded information on what source singers thought about their songs. It was the main thing that motivated Pat and I to embark on collecting in the first place.
The only concentrated work on this appears to have been done in the US with singers such as Sarah Cleveland, though I have never come across a published commentary on that work.
Jim Carroll
PS I don't know if you know the story our collector friend, the late Tom Munnelly told of meeting elderly singer, Martin Howley, who had a repertoire of quite rare and important songs. During the first recording session Martin insisted that he sang The Old Armchair.
Tom's time was limited and he kept putting Martin off until he finally insisted, and began to sing:
"Knight William was sitting on his old armchair; Lady Margaret was sitting on his knee" - a ballad that dates back to the early 17th century; the only version ever to have been found in Ireland.