Its interesting to hear about Walter Greaves.I knew him a little, but didnt know about his cycling exploits.He became a blacksmith near Skipton. He certainly looked the part of the trad folksinger - grey beard and all - but I'm sorry to say I felt at the time, as others did,that he opportunistically found a role ready waiting for him and slipped into it,after stumbling across the vibrant leeds folk scene.Desperate to get involved, he got hold of the book Marrowbones which everyone was using in the 70s, and learned some songs from it.I think he enjoyed a kind of minor celebrity,and may even have been booked at C Sharp House by the EFDSS - but he wasnt much of a singer.I bet inwardly he was astonished that people had so easily bought into the myth they themselves had created - although to be fair I never heard him claim to be a trad singer.It was both amusing and irritating to see how quickly he set himself up as an authority on traditional unaccompanied singing.I know this sounds a bit critical - I liked him as a person, and he was a character.
Someone perhaps more worthy of respect as a mainstay of the yorkshire folk scene is Geoff Wood - still around, at the age of about 90, and still singing - I saw him a few weeks ago at the Grove.Also collector of some classic songs e.g. The Lish Young Buy-A-Broom.