It's worth bearing in mind that if it hadn't been for MacColl (and Lloyd and Lomax) there wouldn't have been a post-war revival in the UK.

Listening to the newly re-issued Riverside recordings of MacColl singing ballads (Topic TSCD576D, 2009) I am struck by how accomplished his interpretation of them was even as early as 1956. When you consider that he had spent the previous decades fully engaged in his theatre work, that only a handful of traditional singers were still singing ballads at that point and many of his contemporaries, like Hugh McDiarmid, were openly contemptuous of his interest in folk song these performances are a remarkable achievement. I don't subscribe to a "Cult of the Divine MacColl" (that's just silly sarcasm) but I do consider him to have been the greatest singer I ever heard and he did give me an insight into the nature of Folk Song and what makes it special. He also introduced me to the British ballad repertoire and hearing him sing many of those ballads, on various stages and on record, has left me with some wonderful memories. I wouldn't have missed those performances for the world.