I have thought about this before (Ignoring it is like sticking ones head in the sand) and I have come to two conclusions that make me feel comfortable in learning and singing 100-400 year old songs:

1. Many of the Traditional songs that we still have today were recorded in the early 1900's - which means that people were singing them (relevant or not) from when they were originally composed right up until... the early 1900's. Who are we to say that these songs aren't good enough for our sophisticated palates?

2. Relevance is a tricky thing to apply to folk, not because folk is irrelevent but because, traditionally speaking, folk songs are typically not political, not protest, and not satirical (Ok, there are exceptions to the rule) and therefore have NEVER been relevant to anything but entertainment.

Political/Protest songs are great in a homogenous group of people but in a room full of typical folkies (politically diverse, to say the least) they run the risk of offending people - and offended people don't sing much.

Thanks for listening

Linael