> I'm really interested in where the songs came from, who sang them, why they sang them, and so on.

The traditional idioms and premises are so different from those of pop genres that such talking such "ballocks" is necessary to introduce any ordinary person to the songs.

Dance music, maybe not.

The singer who visited our public elementary school in 1957 with his repertoire of folksong showed me as a child that songs and stories were more than just shiny (or sometimes mysterious) surface. I don't know about any of the other kids, but I, for one, remain grateful.

To each his own.