I first saw people trying to answer the question, "What is a folk song?" in Sing Out! magazine about 1961. This was debated, off and on, for the next 53 years. While many folks came up with definitions that satisfied themselves, there has not been a satisfactory answer to the question yet.

Big Bill Broonzy (or Louis Armstrong or...) said,"I guess all songs is folk songs. I ain't never heard no horse sing 'em."

Michael Cooney once said, "If you know who wrote it, it's not a folk song."

I believe Michael also said, "If it takes more than two trips to get your gear from the car, it ain't folk music."

Catfish Willie said, "It's a 4 letter word that starts with F and ends with K and if you use it, your music won't get played on the radio."

I believe Pete Seeger said that if he sang Jimmy Crack Corn on a stage and was paid for singing, he was not a folk singer, but a housewife singing My Funny Valentine to her kids while she does the dishes is a folk singer. (I'll have to look that up, but it was something like that.)

I wonder how many threads mudcat has had on defining a folk song.