"Hammond Organ solos?"
I suppose it's a matter of taste - bearing in mind that our tradition is almost entirely word/narrative based and anything you do to interfere with that is detrimental to the song.
I've always been an admirer of Peggy Seeger's singing; she introduced me to the American versions of ballads and songs and the research she put into them helped me understand how the oral tradition worked. She used this to inform her own songwriting and the skill she had with words puts her songs up among the best as far as I'm concerned.
But the last time I heard her sing she'd taken to using keyboards.... sorry Peggy... a wall to climb to get to the understanding of the song - for me anyway. I don't object to this because it's 'new' but because it gets in the way - not all 'progress' is 'progressive' - we have to travel some distance nowaday to get a half-decent loaf of bread since our local bakers was 'progressed' out of business by the supermarkets.
"I applaud Jims work in the collecting "
Thanks for that Ralphie - but sometimes I wish people would stop saying this (but not just yet!) - rewiring houses was work - recording singers was a self-indulgent pleasure.
Jim Carroll