Black Hawk - Will,
The Critics Group was in existence for around 8 to 10 years.
It got through a great deal of work, mainly singing, but also including songwriting, instrumentation, acting, research.... and related subjects.
It was NEVER the intention of the group to "preserve what was perceived as tradition"; the main aim was to help singers develop their abilities and understanding of folksong and to create new songs using the old forms.
I have something like 250 tapes covering the work the group did and numerous others relating to Ewan's ideas. It would be extremely difficult, nigh impossible to sum up the work on this forum, though there are murmurings of putting something together in the not-to-distant future by some of us involved.
I include everybody interested in my offer of the symposium notes - they're by no means comprehensive or anything like perfect, but they're as accurate and honest an assessment as I could manage.
Ewan's feelings on the Group were summed up well in Peggy's introduction to the Ewan MacColl Song Book.
Incidentally, Alex Campbell was one of the leading members of the "near enough for folksong" school of thought; don't think he was ever asked to join the group - doubt it somehow!.
Jim Carroll