Followers of "folk harmonica"? Never met one in the 25 years I've been playing. I just play the bloomin' thing because it sounds nicer than a melodeon and is easier to play than a musical instrument. ;0)

I have heard the harmonica played for Morris (rarely) and very rarely in sessions, and I once saw Willie Atkinson live in concert at Nottingham Traditional Music Club - and how traditional is that?: a Northumbrian shepherd as a booked guest playing for money in a pub in Nottingham. Context context context...

The very debate about the definition of "folk" and "tradition" (in the context of music and song) is one which would never have been aired in this detail until people from "outside" the tradition took an interest.

But then we usually forget that modern people, even middle class people, and educated professional people come from a culture too. There is something vaguely comical about insurance assessors (me) or other white collar professionals worrying about whether it is "traditional" for them to sing one version of an 18th century weaver's song or another.

However, the attitude of those insurance assessors and teachers (and electricians, brick layers, stock brokers and nude models - let's not lapse into easy stereotypes) towards those songs is itself an expression of their own culture. So, just as farmers who had never met the Devil and his hounds on a dark night could sing about him, we can sing about whale fishermen and ploughboys even if we've never met one.

The "It's all folk, I ain't never heard a horse sing..." line of argument is trivial. There are significant differences in context and motive between folk and non-folk.

However, as soon as you try to define by style, instrument or method of transmission, you let your own prejudices and preconceptions creep in. Play it for the amusement of yourself and your friends, it's folk. Play it because you picked it up but can't remember where, and it's traditional. The rest is a question of degree.

Thin Lizzy playing Whiskey in the Jar is Rock and Roll. I sang the Ace of Spades lyrics to a 6/8 traditional-style tune in a room full of friends, and that was folk. (It was also bloody awful, but hey!)