Hootenanny. You're right. there never was anyone comparable to Ralph Peer operating here in the UK. That's partly because commercial recording of traditional musicians happened on a smaller scale here than in the the USA. Mainly though, it's because the people Peer recorded mostly lived in remote parts of the American south. Therefore, for a musician to travel to Camden, New Jersey, where the Victor Record Company was based usually entailed a lengthy and prohibitively expensive journey.

Over here, on the other hand, for a commercial record company to record a traditional musician - and a remarkable number did end up on commercial records - merely entailed that musician travelling to London, Glasgow or Dublin, where the record companies were based.

What's more, Peer wasn't a field recorder as such. IE., unlike conventional folk music collectors, he didn't seek out musicians and record them in their own homes or wherever. Rather, he would pick a suitable location (EG., the Bristol Sessions of 1927 were conducted in a disused hat factory) and fit it up so that it was in effect a purpose built studio.