"Jim the song is about love/lust/longing, don't you remember? "
Which you've just described and condemned as "dirgy
u need to make up your mind Ake
If one genre of song is dismissed for that, why not the other ?
You can'rt approach folk song on the basis of personal preferences
"Some of us manage perfectly"
I'm sure some do Joe- not the point
The singing is gappy and non-narrative and the stupid strumming on the fiddle acts as a distinctive to follow the story - it's as far from a Scottish folk song as you can possibly get
Ake presented it as just that
He also raised the question of involving new people - what on earth are they going to make of that, considering what's on offer fo most young people today - planets apart
It is self-industry folkiism at its worst and if that's what passes for good folk nowadays it's the last gap of a dying culture

"Sorry, Jim Carroll you are outnumbered on this one"
If I set my ideas around what others think, I'd wear a bell around my neck and find a shearing shed to get sheared regularly
"Absolutely wonderful, beautiful sound."
"Sound" sums it up perfectly - it's not folk singing in any way shape or form
Jim