"I feel I must apologise to Sam & Francesco and suggest they stop reading this thread. "
Sorry Mo - can't agree.
As far as I am concerned, Sam and Francesco have exonerated themselves and are no longer the target of this thread (others are free to act otherwise of course)
This doesn't stop this discussion being about the use of field recordings in general terms - very much needed considering the number of them that still haven't seen the light of day.
"the possibility that the original singers might actually have considered it flattering that someone liked their music enough to want to spend their time trying out some banjo accompaniment to their songs"
Quite possibly, but the decision has to rest with someone, and given that nearly all our singers, as far as I'm concerned Pat and I are in the best position to make that judgement.
We spent twenty years recording Walter Pardon and, gentle man that he was, I'm damn sure that we would have had to hang garlic over all our windows to keep is angry spirit from our door.
Walter played both melodeon and fiddle and was quite capable of accompanying himself, should he have ever felt the necessity - he told us specifically that he didn't.
Jamesie McCarty and all our Clare singers spent their lives in a town that was renowned for its fine musicians, Willie Clancy, Bobby Casey, Junior Crehan... piper Johnny Doran was a regular visitor.
All of them were perfectly capable of providing themselves with accompaniment, should they have wanted.
The only time we worked with singers who had ever sung to accompaniment were the tiny handful of Travellers who did street sining, and they made a point of differentiating between "street" and "fireside singing".
It is arrogant to assume accompaniments either necessary or desirable on behalf of the singers, and more than a little patronising to claim that they would be flattered by it being added.
Jim Carroll