GSS: ",they are singers who really knew their business,and could brioing ballads to life without the need for rap interludes.these songs stand up perfectly well unaccompanied if the singer is a good singer"

RuthA had it right below, it doesn't have to be an either / or situation.

I love singing this stuff unaccompanied - for my own pleasure. And so long as there are 'spit & sawdust' folk sessions where people gather to share music for its own sake, I can't see myself ever wanting to quit doing that. I also think it'd be super if more people felt like dipping their toes in unaccompanied trad. songs. But that's still only one way of doing it, and it doesn't preclude an artist exploring the exact same songs in their own personal way. In that YouTube I posted Jim M speaks of responding to the songs "honestly" and that means for him not attempting to sound 'authentic' or trying to pretend to be something that he's not by ignoring all the other musical influences that have contributed to his own way of experiencing and responding to these songs. Whether or not some others find the result aesthetically pleasing to their ears or not, is not as important as an artist addressing the material itself with honesty and human integrity. And IMO such a position is entirely laudable, and indeed respectful so to speak to the music itself.