No , Folknacious, you are wrong, if Colin Irwin meant that he should have said it, he is a journalist his stock in trade is words, if that is what he meant he knows how to state it.
what he said was an insult to all the UK PERFORMERS OF THAT TIME, whether they started in the sixties or seventies or eighties, it gives an impression that those performers were not producing worthwhile work, then irwin says
The decades following Jones's accident were largely barren for British folk music, but when a new generation of musicians started to come through, one thing was notable – they all appeared to carry a copy of the one Nic Jones album they could easily get their hands on, Penguin Eggs.
This is an interesting comment, IT IS INACCURATE, but the wording is interesting, he talks of musicians not singers.
I dont wish to give any offence, because I have the greatest respect for Nic Jones as a musician and I am very pleased, he is performing again, but in my opinion his interpretation of traditional songs as a singer was not his strongest point, in my opinion the song that he sings best, on Unearthed, Is The Jukebox as She Turned, Which in my opinion is closer to Hank Williams than Walter Pardon.
Of the revival singer guitarists who sang traditional songs during the 1980s, Tony Rose and Martin Carthy, are two who in my opinion are closer to traditional singers than Nic Jones.
Nic says"I just thought: 'What's the point of singing songs about Napoleon Bonaparte?' I never knew him, I didn't know what he was like. I'm from Essex!' So I tried to sing more normally and moved from being a fake traditional singer to a fake rock guitarist." Nic was right to stop singing traditional songs if that was how he felt about them, because if you do not sing material you enjoy you cannot possibly interpret it properly.
I Strongly disagree with Nics' sentiments, the fact that someone comes from Essex or sussex or northumberland has no bearing whatsoever on a singers ability to get inside a song, the situation is akin to being a good actor, but Nic was dead right about not singing songs he did not enjoy.
I would not sing Lord Randall or Benjamin Bowmaneer, for the same reason, the fact that I come from Essex or Cornwall is[as far as i am concerned] irrelevant