I've always found that attempting to attribute accolades like this to one individual a little pointless
The older I get, the more I think back with gratitude to all the people who have left their fingerprints over my life as far as my love of folk music is concerned - all for different reasons.
MacColl and Seeger would top my personal list, both certainly for the pleasure I have got from their singing and for convincing me that if you were going to sing the songs, you needed to put in the time, effort and thought, "because they're worth it" (as the cosmetics ad says).
Ewan for making me aware that it was worth lifting the corner and looking under the songs to find all the things that they carried with them and Peggy for opening the world of American balladry up to me - I'm reaping the benefits of that one at present as I archive our collection of Library of Congress recordings.
Which leads on to Alan Lomax, who did much to put the songs into a social context, and nudged all those Brits who were trying to be shadows of Woodie Guthrie into opening put our own National repertoires.
Bert Lloyd, who showed us complex and how skilful folk singing could be through the international "simple" singers with programmes like 'The Lament' and 'Folk Music Virtuoso' and 'Songs of the People'
Sharp, Child, Greig and Duncan... and all the other pioneers who gave us the raw material, and Bronson and other academics who made musical sense of it all.
Then, again personally, Travellers like Mary Delaney and Mikeen McCarthy, Clareman and women like Tom Lenihan, Martin Reidy and Nora Cleary, and quiet, self-effacing Walter Pardon, all of whom sucked us into the soul of folk-song and showed us what made them tick and why they were so important.
And, of course, all those who showed unhesitating, open-handed generosity in sharing their time, knowledge and opinions in passing on their songs and ideas on something that has filled most of my life with pleasure and interest.
Couldn't possibly put the blame on one individual.
Jim Carroll