Jim,
I don't see any problem with Topic issuing a track by Ewan doing Sixteen Tons. I am sure that you are as aware as any "collector" that many highly respected "traditional" singers - probably most, also sang a variety of other material including music hall and "pop" songs. Walter Pardon for instance? Sixteen Tons was a pretty good song written by a Kentuckian about slaving your guts out to dig coal and always finishng up in debt to the coal owners, surely the subject matter would appeal to Ewan. The fact that most people then only knew the Tennessee Ernie Ford popular version may have put some "folkies" off.
I heard tell by a collector in Suffolk once who had been recording a box player. The musician played a tune which the collector thought he had not heard previously. When told that it was an unusual tune and asked the title back came the reply "Well around here we call it 'I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts'".

I have to agree with you that the Singers Club policy opened up the doors to British traditions and it was a good thing but don't forget that Harry Cox, Sam Larner, Bob and Ron Copper, Dominic Behan, the McPeakes, Seamus Ennis etc all appeared at the Ballads & Blues so we we weren't only exposed to fake cowboys and cotton pickers like Rambling Jack, Derrol Adams, Dean Gitter, Fred Gerlach.

Hoot