I love hearing musicians get their head around an old trad ballad and arrange it for a wider audience. Yet would I be as happy listening to a scratchy old recording of an old man singing it flat as a fart purely because of the provenance? Well no. But that doesn't stop me appreciating the small but real contribution the old lad made.

This seems to be the received wisdom of the revival. I find it a little sad - and not a little patronising. Personally, as far as so-called Folk Music is concerned, there is no greater joy than listening scratchy old field recordings of the old singers singing the old songs & ballads. They are real in a way well-meaning revivalists doing it for a 'wider audience' can never be.