"I regard them as individual artists rather than evidences of some mythical Tradition - the notion of which was invented by early revivalists to bypass very real issues of indivual creativity. People are, first and foremost individuals; I'm drawn to Folk as an eccentricity; I listen to Davie Stewart and I hear a creative artist"

No doubt that Davie Stewart was a creative artist, a wonderfully idosyncratic musician and interpreter of ballads. However you seem to be making the logical error of assuming that, because Stewart himself was a highly individual singer and musican, the practice of singing as communal entertainment in pre-technological society was the preserve of a few gifted or even eccentric individuals, whereas all the evidence suggests that it was very widespread. If you're accepting that most people sang, but that every one of them should be respected as an individual, I'm right with you - but that's exactly what I call a singing tradition, a concept you don't accept.