I agree entirely - it used to be called The Lord Gregory Syndrome" - anything that mentioned "shoeing your pretty little feet" was a version of Child 76
I decided to carry out this project using Tom Munnelly's list - Tom was the finest ballad scholar I ever knew and I'm sure he would have been selective in his writing - this list was a rough guide rather than a close study
For my part, it disturbs me contrary to how the older singers chose their traditional repertoire, many of the newer singers have more or less ignored the narrative aspects of their tradition - apart from a few exceptions, the ballads don't get sung
I can only hope this redresses the imbalance
Jim