To our unidentified 11:28 AM GUEST ......   
       I certainly realize that Neil Diamond doesn't fit the hardcore, hard living singer-songwriter profile, but my contention is that if we are going to open our veneration to contemporaries who write their own words and apply them to traditional folk song forms and chord progressions, then we'd better be ready to keep an open mind.   
      Perhaps you confine yourself to songs that have been distilled through centuries of obscurity in small villages?   If that's your limited idea of acceptable "folk" music, then I'll just have to leave you there in the museum as music marches on.   
      (May I just add ....... I'm driving 56 miles this Friday for a wonderful evening where I'll probably share about a dozen of my memorized "Watersons" songs. I love that stuff! We'd probably have a great time there together! )