the only purpose of a guitar instrumental in the middle of a narrative ballad is if the singer has forgotten the words, i do not mind a guitar instrumental at the beginning of a song or even at the end, but as far as i am concerned the only people do ti generally speaking is to show off their finger dexterity, it interrupts the flow of the song and that applies to carthy and jones,
mind you a couple of years ago i heard a ballad sung unaccompanied at a festival and half the words were incomprehensible and it went on for ten minutes, when the singer is that badan instrumental on the feckin didgeredoo or the pink oboe would have been welcome