Jim, I have never EVER said to listeners 'this is a traditional song' or 'this is a folk song' - after all I've said, it would be the kind of dogmatic statement I'd avoid like a date with Edwina Currie.

I might introduce a song by saying 'I got this from e.g. Willie Scott, or Sam Cooke' as it's a bit of extra information, but it's up to the listener to put songs in categories, if they really must, certainly not my role.

There are MANY good songs in my repertoire which could be described as 'traditional' or .....perish the thought 'pop'. I do them my own way, and have never excluded anything for reasons of its provenance because I don't draw lines- other people do enough of that. If we are concerned about passing on the tradition, I would suggest that to exclude a vast proportion of 'popular music' because of some outdated and unsatisfactory definition is likely to seriously damage the chances of anyone listening and passing on this amazing music.

This has been an interesting discussion, and I'm not excluding joining it again, but for now think I've made my opinions clear on the original question (see above) so keep calm & carry on.....