... source singers ... all but a very few were singing from generations-dead traditions - remembering songs which had been remembered for them by their forbears Jim Carroll

I wonder through those generations how many times it relied on a Walter Pardon, who's own generation had by his account (but in Jim's words) "rejected folk song" to feel that they had worth and preserve them and get them into a 'performable' state. Or even a thinner connection of Walter's younger relative who also recognised their worth and got him to record them.

I appreciate the interest in how much of Walter's style came from the tradition but I find it more interesting that his account of the family's repertoire shows that his family tradition included many non-folk songs that some purists don't like in folk clubs.

On the topic of the thread - the longer versions of the interviews provided by Vic Smith leave me thinking that the briefer accounts do a fair job presenting him the way he presented himself.