"Sorry but I'm totally flummoxed by your second statement."
Sorry - I thought you were claiming that 90%# of our traditional songs originated on the broadside presses = many of the variants - is this not the case?
"No, Jim, no matter how hard you search you won't find any references from me of songs being made by retired country people."
Subject: RE: Origin: High Germany From: Steve Gardham - PM Date: 22 Apr 12 - 04:48 PM
"On that last point there is no contradiction. I stand by what I said originally. Just as today, the vast majority of people neither have the time nor the inclination to write songs. My ancestors were ploughmen who got up at 4 in the morning and were working with very few and short breaks through to 7 or 8 at night on a daily basis. All that guff about whistling happily behind the plough while the birds are sweetly singing is straight out of the pleasure gardens in the late 18thc. The examples I have are from a few latterday writers/singers written in their retirement. In the early 19th century not many made it to retirement, and if they did the workhouse was waiting for them, or parish relief if they were lucky."
Jim Carroll