"We also Know that a visiting floorsinger was laughed at for singing the Rock Island Line with a cockney accent."
By Peggy Seeger - a lifetime ago - she apologised in public (on The Living Tradition letter page) and explained fully the policy of the club regarding singing songs from your own national backgrounds.
In the early days, the policy of not using musical instruments or singing only traditional songs extended to far more than "one or two clubs" - it was never the policy of the Singers Club, on the contrary, the stated aim was to develop instrumental styles and to encourage the composition of new songs using traditional forms.
Peggy edited more than 20 issues of 'The New City Songster' an occasional magazine she set up made up of new songs from all over the English-speaking world.
Jim Carroll