"Okay. I think your position here is way too subjective to be of any worth other than as 'an opinion' "
Is that what is being offered here by everybody - "opinions"
You seem quite happy to consider only those "opinions" that uncritically favour your own performance - without discussion, which is the ultimate in subjectivity.
I have always had great difficulty in taking your snideswipes at the revival seriously, not because I wish to defend the fact that much of todays revival couldn't find its folk arse with both hands - I don't; but simply because your own singing represents some of the most idiosyncratic aspects of revial singing from the time it was beginning to lose its grip. Apart from anything else, it is so old fashioned; rather like the bunch of punks that used to (and maybe still do) hang around Chelsea Square on the Kings Road.
We are prepering a talk on Travellers that we at due to give at next month's West Clare Traditional Singing Festival, and one thing that is hammered home each time we listen to some of our old recordings - we owe a huge vote of thanks to Travellers (Irish and Scots) for having kept some of our rarest ballads alive for so long (in the case of Ireland - Young Hunting, The Maid and The Palmer, Lamkin, Edward, Lord Randall, Lord Gregory......) The reason for this - Travellers love of a good story.
Our ballads are stories with tunes; your singing does not reflect this.
Jim Carroll