Hey, welcome to the Mudcat, John!
Can we expect a non-guest "Squeezy John" to appear on this forum soon?

Right on about Joseph Taylor, especially the diction. I'm not sure whether the vibrato was his or an artefact of the wax cylinder, judging from the other wobbly cylinder recordings I've heard, like John Locke's hornpipe on the first track of Rattlebone and Ploughjack.

Mary (for whom Joseph Taylor is a hero) is looking over my shoulder and asks me to point out that if you listen though the wobbly vibrato on JT's recordings you also hear some vocal decoration which is much more associated with traditional folk song and not part of the usual music hall and light opera singing style.

As for Jim's experimentation, I have no problem with him applying arrangement styles that were developed in the 70's to traditional folk songs if he wants to, but commentators (certainly someone on the radio) who heralded this as "innovative" lost credibility points with me.

Anahata