I enjoy Jim Carrol's posts and I think he knows a lot about what is important in folk music.

Part of what will defeat the racism of the BNP is the in-depth knowledge and interest in traditional music of all kinds. The old style ballad singing is an antidote to those who attempt to use folk music as a kind of phony nationalism. The power of that music defies
those who would claim it as a pretext for jingoism.

I think art can transcend partisan politics but with the idea that the expression of art whenever it is made has to be political. It affects the social order.

I used to be one who thought that a song could not change a view or belief. I'm not so sure anymore about that. Songs are very powerful statements that can transform society.

When I hear the old ballads, I am moved and transformed into thinking that the human
condition is variable and adaptable. One of the powers of folk music is that it is historically adaptable to changing times. The iconographic themes of the old songs limn
the mores of past times as stories and as Joseph Campbell has pointed out, humanity needs myths to teach us to appreciate our lives.

This is why traditional ballads will always be with us.

Frank Hamilton