Groucho Marx, Not Mark, Richard,I am not against anything, apart from being misquoted,with the following kind of infantile nonsense.Subject: RE: Folklore: Traditional Singers Talking
From: GUEST,Anne Neilson - PM
Date: 17 May 14 - 09:17 PM

Of course singers should be listening to source material as an example of best practice, but GSS shouldn't belittle the very useful information that comes from the discussion of approaches to songs by admired performers themselves.

IMHO, the point at issue is that a singer has to tackle a song with knowledge of its meaning/back story -- even when that seems to be partially or entirely of his/her creation.

I have heard enough source singers in live performance introducing their songs (Jeannie Robertson, Lizzie Higgins, Davy Stewart, Belle Stewart, Sheila Stewart etc.) to appreciate the importance of the perceived background of their material -- and to be aware of how that impacts on the actual delivery.

But I'm also aware that other singers will come to the same material with possibly different approaches, which should also be accorded validity… (Although I will persist with my efforts to link young singers to the sources of the songs.)

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Subject: RE: Folklore: Traditional Singers Talking
From: Jim Carroll - PM
Date: 18 May 14 - 03:51 AM

Why do you always do this Dick?
As long as I have reading what you have had to say you have belittled the role of traditional singers and what they have had to say, while at the same time, paying lip-service to what wonderful people some of them were.
You once described some of them of considering themselves "gods" when I quoted an elderly musician's opinion on a younger fiddle player's performance - pretty well sums up your attitude to all of them.
We owe all our material to these people - without their passing their songs and tunes onto us, we wouldn't have had anything to sing and play - simple as that.
After half a century of listening to traditional singers, and four decades of talking to and recording them, I have long been of the opinion that virtually all of them bring to traditional songs something that is missing from most of the later generation of singers performances, a depth which has come from generations of having the songs as part of their lives.
We learn their songs - we should at least have the courtesy to show an interest in what they have so say - simple good manners, if nothing else.
They were not albums or song-books from which just to lift songs; they were, in our experience, intelligent and articulate human beings with a wealth of information and understanding which were happy to pass on to those who have the common sense to listen to and use it.
In my opinion, there is a ton of evidence to suggest that the younger singers who took the trouble to take more than the words and the tunes, turned out to be better singers and did the songs far more justice than those who didn't.
I have no intention of fouling up this discussion by entering into another one of your unpleasant harangues against traditional singers, I'd much rather benefit from reading more of the valuable information people have already taken the trouble to put up .
If you're not interested in what traditional singers had to say, feel free not to take part.
Jim Carroll