My parents' record collection included Burl Ives,
but they did not have the Irish lit album,
which sounds like a real find.
I will go prospecting for it.

Well, one could compare and contrast
Burl Ives and Richard Dyer-Bennet.
Both had educations in classical music,
and both were dedicated to entertainment.
Ives was more proficient in singing than in guitar playing.
Dyer-Bennet could do wonderful things with the guitar,
while his singing gets an "A - for - effort."

Ives took his presence and his dedication to the spoken word
all the way to Hollywood, and
I can't remember the Disney film I saw him in --
because I was too engrossed in watching him steal the show.

Dyer-Bennet had aspirations as well, but not to Hollywood.
He wrote a singable English translation -- still in print ? --
to "Die Schöne Müllerin",
the Wilhelm Müller / Franz Schubert song cycle.

My parents' rather pretentious generation
was pleased with both artists and their careers, because
each of them was gracious and deferential to their public in performance.