Interesting idea, Alonzo M. Zilch, that singer/songwriters are not folk singers. It's also interesting that you think people who
write and sing original songs (like all those old trad songs that were written by someone, sometime in their original form, and all
the new ones written "in the tradition") are not folk singers. And players of acoustic guitar, and great and funny entertainers,
etc. are likewise not folk singers?

Barbara,

I did not say that singer-songwriters are not folksingers. There are many singer-songwriters who I have no trouble classifying as folksingers. Tom Paxton, Tom Russell, even Bob Dylan come to mind. Certainly Woody Guthrie, Jean Ritchie and Pete Seeger.

What I'm driving at is that playing acoustic guitar and singing only your own songs does not make you a folksinger. The songwriters that I consider to be folksingers are ones whose music is part of a on-going and constantly developing tradition.

Yes, Cheryl Wheeler plays at one we consider to be folk clubs. I've gone to see her myself on any number of occasions and I think she's great. I just happen to think that folk music is music of a people, not music of a particular person.