Shimrod,
"I have to say, though, that I don't think that it matters too much"
It matters to this extent; if the songs and ballads were, as is generally believed, made by 'the people' then they become an essential part of our history as well as a form of entertainment.
150 years after the event Harry Cox's Van Dieman's Land can still move us emotionally as experiences of 'the people'.
When He goes into a diatribe about the siezure of common land, as he did, or spits out "And that's what the buggers thought of us" after singing 'Betsy The Serving Maid', it's fairly obvious, to me anyway, that he regarded the songs and part of his own history and culture, not something that was created by somebody else for him and his.
It thropws a diferent light on the situation if these songs were made by somebody who's never ventured further than the end of St Martins Lane.
In many ways, the songs are all we have by way of a social history of 'ordinary' people.
Jim Carroll