"Jim and Mary, how can ballads be the epitome of 'folk' songs when they were largely written and performed by professional troubadours?"
You have the advantage over me there Gurney - for all the time I've been interested (and despite recent arguments to the contrary) I have no idea, and certainly no evidence of the name of one single author of one single ballad. Bronson once presented a lengthy essay claiming that 'Edward' was writted by Sir David Dalrymple - Lord Hailles, but personally, I found his argument unconvincing.
As for the troubadours...... weeeeell!
I only know that over the last forty years, if I wanted to hear any ballads from 'the folk' and not from somebody who had learned them from books, or from somebody who had learned them from somebody who had learned..... I would more likely to have found them at my local Travellers site from a community of people who didn't read or write. Failing that, we got them from Irish fam labourers, or Norfolk carpenters, or fishermen.... the essence of 'the folk'.
Who says what people pay to listen to - I found Lloyd and MacColl's approach to ballads - a mixture of entertainment and information - has been enough to stimulate my interest and keep it going for nearly half a century.
"Getting dangerously near - What is a folksong here"
It's a bit like 'Jaws', isn't it? It's always lurking out there somewhere, and if it should come up, don't forget; you were the first to draw attention to 'the elephant in the room'.
"I stand by my statement about 'most' audiences."
But appear not prepared to back it up with argument.
The question of accompaniment is a vexed one with me. I'm certainly not opposed to using instruments, but somewhere along the way they came to dominate performance and acted as a distraction - at the very best you found your attention torn between the voice (narrative) and the instrument, which presents sometimes insurmountable barriers to appreciating both songs and ballads - particularly the latter because they can be so long. The most hilarious example of this for me was Steeleye Span's recording of Lamkin, where they gave the impression of having become bored with it and played an Irish reel in the middle.
Jim Carroll