"There would seem to be little difference between these two positions despite the apparent disagreements."
I've made my position quite clear on that Vic - I have no problem with people whyo draw from the tradition - a little different from the bums on seats attitude of presenting stuff that has no connection with traditional song , which is easily identifiable and not just "a matter of opinion"
Johnny Doughty was heavily influenced by music-hall songs and his performance reflected that
Davie Stewart and Jimmy McBeath were street oerformers and their perfiormances were typical of that paricular style - Traveller, Mikeen McCarthy summed that up perfectly when he talked about street singing, pub singing and fireside singing of the same songs being totally different
Audiences came to be entertained by the content of the songs, nt to listen to the various uses they were put to, which woud be more suitable for a seminar rather than a club
Jeannie was a superb traditional singer, a true representative artist
I heard Jimmy sing at one time and he managed to walt the tightrope between street and firside singing so you could appreciate it on both levels
In my opinion Maggie Barry never quite did that
All this is a million miles from what is being proposed as being suitable for today's clubs of course

"Technically excellent, sometimes spectacular, but predictable and dull compared with the vitality of the real village music that the likes of Bert Lloyd was recording in remote parts in those countries."
I couldn't agree more
Lloyd once described recording a lament from a young Rumanian girl whose youngest brother had drowned -
She was the singer who was always called on to formally sing laments, but because it was her brother on the table her involvement became so intense that what she sang was folk-art at it's creative highest - it still produces a lump in the throat to remember it
Howard
Something being well regared on the folk scene doesn't automatically make it good folk - none of those you list strike me as being tahat, though the Watersons seemed to be influenced by what the Coppers did, which was a family raher than a general folk style
I can't think of many other singers who sang as they did
Jim