Thanks Oggie...
Very few people sing Brigg Fair, I think because the song is so iconic: singing it invites some potentially difficult comparisons, both with the riginal recording and with formal world recordings such as this
https://youtu.be/S7lSzZwnpy8 But as they say, songs are there to be sung, it doesn't do them any good to be unsung, and I hope more will sing this one, whether they did so high and highly decorated like Taylor or slower and more dreamy...
Growing up at Caistor and being a regular at Brigg folk Club in my youth I kind-of had to sing it, of course.
If they're allowed to do so, it's certainly striking how songs do change, even in the hands of a single individual. In the informal music world, it's normal to adapt songs for our own purposes, and they often change over time: perhaps a striking example with this particular song from my own musical life was a bluesy version that I sang with melodeon/horns/guitars band Florida nearly three decades ago...
Something I noticed many years ago is that the tune is a more interesting version of the second half of the Star of the County Down tune.
Gavin