Interesting observations, leeneia. I don't know that you'll find many ballad singers who would agree with your assessment of Dr. Bronson's work.

For the most part, traditional ballads don't lend themselves easily to instrumentation. Instrumentalists have a hard time resisting the temptation to regularize the meter, and worse.

As others have said above, there are many good collections of sung versions of the Child Ballads. Ballads are meant to be sung, not instrumentalized into elevator music.

-Joe, not a ballad singer myself-