It's a very good point you make Will but the songs that were collected in the 19C & early 20C came from all kinds of contexts not simply small, tight rural communities.

Many songs were collected again and again from people in small vilages, work houses, small towns, market towns and later from travellers. Some of those people had been in the forces, some had worked in factories and some were migrant workers.

I still agree with the point you make about what we are at ease singing. I think my point is that ever since Sharp (ESS?) some people in the revival have wanted to locate all or most 'folk songs' in 'small, tight rural communities' in fact in The Imagined Village?

The Copper Family are not typical of the people that Sharp et al collected from. But then, we know little about the specific context of the sources of Sharp's songs because he didn't often recird it.

Cheers

Les