"To say, as I have done.........."
You have ben saying exactly the opposite
You have denied the existence of the oral tradition.
You have put the oral tradition down to the imaginings of sloppy and agenda driven researchers.
Rather than being the compositions and re-compositions of of "ordinary working class men and women" you have put traditional song down to the work of "master composers"
You have said that folk song is no different than the pop-pap that is the stock in trade of music industry, the output of classical composers..., etc (I'm sure everybody knows by heart your 'folk context' list).
In the past you have written of the older performers as.... can't remember the exact words (past their sell-by date will do for now); am happy to dig them out if you care to deny this.
You have - on this thread, ignored all efforts to get you to state your position on the role of traditional singers in the making and disseminating of traditional song and you have refused to acknowledge their uniqueness, compared to, say Frank Sinatra.
Your 'last stand' caused you to retreat behind Armsrtong (or Broonzy's) 'talking horse', along with Frank Zappa and Sun Ra.
You now appear to have undergone a 'Road To Damascus' conversion - welcome to the folk club.
Jim Carroll