Nothing to see here.

Think of the song not the performer or even the style.

Led Zeppelin sang Gallows Pole. A folk song by any definition and all. Martin Carthy sang Cum on Feel the Noize. A pop song by any definition and all.

You see, folk is a style. This nonsense about being old songs that have passed down generations being folk and something I wrote last week being not... Pish.

Dave rightly put contemporary in the title here. In that sense, I’d perhaps argue that the performer isn’t the genre but the style might be. You listen to someone you are familiar with with expectation. Dylan goes electric anyone???? But that performer might slip in songs and styles that are different. Ralph McTell writes excellent songs in a folk, blues, jazz and crooning style, depending on the song. Richard Thompson is as important to my son, a rock musician as he is to me, a folkie with a trouser waistband getting perilously close to my tits.