"I always felt it a shame we never had an equivilient to Country in the UK really; maybe we do in Scoland & Ireland, but not in England which has such a rich heritage of Traditional Song which didn't find its way into the broader popular consciousness before it ended up in the academic ossuaries of the revival."

I guess that this would be because commercial recording companies decided that 'Hillbilly Music' could be sold back at a profit to the kind of people already familiar with it. The singing tradition remained vibrant in the Southern Mountains well into the 20th century, at a time it was beginning to fall away, at least in England, so maybe there was a stronger market there for the likes of the Carter Family with many old ballads in their repertoire. Also the fact that instrumental accompaniment was rapidly becoming part of the music in the US would have made it more generally accessible.

Meanwhile, over here, no-one thought to make a hit record of Joseph Taylor. And if it hadn't been for the bad old folk revival, most of us would never have heard our old stuff at all. Bob Copper and Walter Pardon's peers were all listening to American music on their radios at the time.