It is borne in on me that I'm a bit puzzled by this thread in many ways. I know a lot of [what are called] The Big Ballads. The first song I ever learned to accompany on the guitar was the 'Scarlet Town', fairly familiar English, version of 'Barbara Allen'. A ballad is just a narrative song with certain recognisable techniques and characteristics. But what's to be so scared of? I often sang them at gigs. Some are quite long — but so are other songs. I love to sing 'Rosie Anderson' for instance — very long; & where does that fit in? A ballad in form, perhaps, tho not one of the 'recognised canon' of big ones. Ditto 'Maria Marten'. I can't help feeling that more is being made here than need be about a particular body of what are, after all, just songs like others, which some like to sing, others not. Not even very long, all of them. Who would balk at singing 'Lizzie Lindsey', or 'The Bonnie Earl of Murray', or 'Bonnie George Campbell'? Or 'The Brown Girl ['dance·on·grave', I mean, not American misnaming of 'Ld Thos'] ?...

Yet here we have all this soul-searching on this long-long thread; and all these specialist events and workshops —

Maybe we should all just lighten up a bit?