Hi, Bob. I started this thread long ago to help flesh out the discussion on this one:

/mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=12983#1100620

The comments by Niles's biographer, Ron Pen, are enlightening.

It's no surprise that some of the soldier songs that Niles published in "Songs My Mother Never Taught Me" are also outright impostures, notably "Venezuela."

He often acted as though he thought of *himself* as the voice of the people as well as the dean of ballad collectors.