Russ
"You giveth and you taketh away."
Sorry - not attempting to take away anything.
Don't know where you are, but as far as I can make out the singing traditions died in the UK somewhere between the wars, in Ireland, somewhat later; what we were left with was singers remembering songs from a tradition which, in all but a few cases they had not been part of, got through family, neighbours, etc.
The main exception to this was the Travelling communities who, thanks to their relative isolation from the settled communities and the effects of modern technology, kept singing and remaking the songs, and composing new ones to reflect their own lives and communities. Unfortunately this screeched to a halt in the mid-seventies when they acquired portable televisions - we were there and saw it happen.
The folk song revival, which started some time in the 50s by singers like MacColl, Lloyd and others, with teh encouragement of Alan Lomax, and based largely on the collecting project carried out by the BBC in the earlier part of that decade, was one set up and run my outsiders like ourselves - and that, with a few exceptions (mainly the Scots Travellers, is how it stands today IMO.
As I say, not a value judgement, just an assesment of where we are.
Diva,
The worst thing you can do is continue to sing through a damaged throat - get some simple voice excercises to restore your voice.
Have I heard you sing - I have an idea that I have; if so, your voice sounds aright to me.
Jim Carroll