'"Intended audience" was the last thing that influenced his songwriting - the subject matter was the be-all and end-all of all his creations - he made songs because he felt the necessity to say something - as I believe all those anonymous people who made our folk-songs did who made our folk-songs'

That's a very interestingf and profound thought - worthy of a thread on its own. After all I don't know what I'm going to do tomorrow, god alone knows what the folk revival will do before the new year.

I always thinkthe most successful song carries with them their own proscenium arch, like in a theatre.

Sometimes the proscenium arch is the speakers of a juke box. Sometimes its posh stereo system which lets you hear every harmony and overtone.

Sometimes its the song that gets the eleven o'clock drinkers in a pub get up and dance.

Sometimes that decision about the song can be made by the performer. I once saw a fabulous performance of the shanty lowlands sang as a chorale piece by the cast of a production of Treasure Island.

Ewan's proscenium was very flexible, because of the diverse skills that he and Peggy had as performers. But having said that they were masters of the folk club as the proscenium arch - the intended audience.

I never really saw Ewan's songs as a howl in the desert of human relationships - in the way that Robert Johnson's were. I doubt Robert ever got to play many of his own introspective songs in the dumps he seemed to play. Probably his hit Terraplane Blues.

Ewan was a master of language, and his words were by turn witty and heartbreaking. I'm sure he intended there to be an audience.