I interviewed Burl Ives for The Guardian at the Brighton Festival in1977 (in, as it happens, the Grand Hotel's best suite which later became the target of an IRA outrage!). He cheerfully admitted that he had made most money and had most success with what his father once denounced, early in his career, as his more "soupy" songs. It was, I think, a tendency to soupiness, to sentimental or childish original songs mixed in with the more traditional repertoire for which his memory is most respected, that has caused later generations to look on him somewhat dismissively. But I do believe that he was one of the most important influences on the early days of the "second revival", and on the course it took.

He was, incidentally, a most pleasant, polite, unassuming and charming man to meet.

~Michael~