it's an important part of the Folk process to keep the songs alive

We see this sort of thinking a lot here. Doesn't anyone appreciate that The Tradition and The Revival are two entirely different things and for members of the latter to tamper with the songs of the former is nothing to do with The Folk Process, rather a particular conceit the revival seems to have with respect of improving things - be it the songs themselves or the versions that have come down to us via the recordings of so-called source singers? My question is as rhetorical as it is long-winded, otherwise the Folk Scene would be devoted primarily to Traditional Song and the Singers Thereof, rather than fawning over the revival stars who have removed the songs yet further from the vital context that was their nautural habitat.

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The condition of traditional song is perilous enough without subjecting them to any further interference. Treat them as listed buildings, the interiors and exteriors of which amount to irreplaceable national treasures all too vulnerable to the ravages of time and ill-advised DIY make-overs. What else is Liege and Leif but a sequence of tasteless, bland modernisations of some nice old characterful properties; the wattle & daub of the originals ripped out and replaced with mass produced breeze block and plaster board; sash windows replaced with UPVC and the open fires with flame-effect gas fires?

The problem is that there is a very definite cut off point between the cultural and social conditions in which the traditional songs arose, and that which exists now. We have lost the continuity in which these songs came into being and as such the only thing we should do with them is observe, and source, and delight in their myriad wonders.

In a nutshell, they are not ours to mess with in the first place - not in any way, shape or form - and God knows there is enough work still to be done in simply learning and singing them with resorting to such underhand methods as addition, alteration and interpretation.

We lovers of traditional song are not so much the keepers of a tradition, rather the volunteer curators of a museum, entrusted with the preservation of a few precious, priceless and irreplaceable artefacts: hand-crafted tools we no longer know the names of (let alone what they were actually used for) ; hideous masks of woven cornstalks (which are invariably assumed to be pagan) ; and hoary cases of singular taxidermy wherein beasts long extinct are depicted in a natural habitat long since vanished.

Not only is such a museum a beacon for the naturally curious, it's a treasure in and of itself, an anachronism in age of instant (and invariable soulless) gratification, and as such under constant threat by those who want to see it revamped; cleaned up with computerised displays and interactive exhibits and brought into line with the rest of commodified cultural presently on offer.

But not only is this museum is our collective Pit-Rivers, it is a museum which, in itself, is just as much an artefact of a long-vanished era as the objects it contains. It is delicate, and crumbling, but those who truly love it wouldn't have it any other way - and quite rightly so.

(Polemic episodes extracted from the old Harvest Home forum and collected into my blog The Liege, The Lief & The Traditional Folk Song, May 2008.)