Steve,
There is no argument that the broadside press didn't produce their own songs - of course that did - and thumbing through Ashton and the like, they stand out like sore thumbs when placed next to the ones we rafer to as 'traditional' - often clunky and unsingable, comapred to the natural flow and stark realistic, and often incisively beautiful observations of folk songs.
If they were all produced by the same school, thenthe pupils must have led a Jeykl and Hyde existence.
More later
Jim Carroll