Whilst the topic of 'what is folk, what is folk singing, et al, rambles on but as usual gets nowhere, huh - somewhat like the proverbial 'rambling boy,' ohers are digging deep into the nation's psyche to bring out a darker side to English traditional song.

Such is Sussex-born and bred Shirley Collins, now in her 80s.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/feb/05/shirley-collins-city-halls-glasgow-review-celtic-connections

What is wonderful about [her new album - her first since 1978] Lodestar – and this was accentuated in performance – is how absolutely willing it is to embrace the difficult and sinister sides of English folk. Collins opened [a recent concert] with Awake Awake, a penitential song from the 1580s about the great earthquake of London, with menacing scenes of ritual burning (Lewes bonfire night) projected on to a screen behind her. Without hysteria or overstatement, she reminds us that folksong taps a collective history that we ignore at our peril.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/oct/27/shirley-collins-lodestar-album-review-austere-foreboding-folk-music

She says "When I sing I feel past generations standing behind me."

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/may/31/shirley-collins-sing-past-generations-standing-folk-music

THAT - to my mind - IS folk song.

Chris B.