"Sigh!"
And you were doing so wellPlease don't start patronising me again Steve - it really doesn't help
"I don't remember anyone denying the existence of local songs and song-makers,"
You dismissed them Steve

Subject: RE: 'Historical' Ballads
From: Steve Gardham - PM
Date: 14 Apr 11 - 05:45 PM
As for farmers writing songs, I have plenty of examples of these myself, but they very seldom get the chance to enter oral tradition. In fact none of the ones I recorded were ever sung by anyone else but the writer.

Elsewhere you said they were too busy earning a living to make folk songs - happy to dig that out as well if it helps
"To state that conditions in mid-20th century Ireland were the same as in rural Britain c1800"
I didn't say the conditions were the same - a said that regarding the culture, the sitution was the same - both had every reason to make songs reflecting their lives - in fact, the harder the conditions, the more reason to complain about them in song, as was shown by the number made following the famine
If you haven't already, I suggest you get hold to Terry Moylan's The Indignant Muse and see how many were wade during the mass emigrations, the evictions, the land wars and the fight for national independence - 700 pages worth
The English agricultural worker must have been very nesh to be silenced by hard work
The corpus you are talking about were covered time when the tradition was dying and Mrs Laidlaw's prophesy was being fulfilled.
We don't have a cle about how far they go back apart from those dealing with historical events
Jim Carroll