Traditional Irish Singing - Source Singers

Source Singers

The term ‘source singer’ is generally understood to describe a singers in the past who received their style and repertoire through the oral tradition, whether that be through a family lineage or social circumstance. In the past, many such 'source' singers were deemed so upon ‘discovery’ by field researches such as Cecil Sharp, Alan Lomax, Hamish Henderson, Pete Seeger, Ewan MacColl or other song collectors who were prominent in 1950s and 1960s. Although far from precise, the phrase sometimes was used to draw a distinction with so-called ‘revival’ singers, whose style and repertoire were perceived as adulterated by contact with written and other second-hand sources. The distinction today in the 21st century is harder to draw.