BTW, I should mention that Americans in general are much more inclusive about folk music than the British seem to be. The British are at the center of this "purist" folk music standard that is, I believe, inherently racist. You see this in the distinctions they draw between music they refer to as "folk" and music they refer to as "world" music (ie music of other cultures, but more often races of people).

It is this sort of language which, IMO, veils the true differences between "folk" music or "traditional" music (which used to connote Irish music, which connoted "the other" to English music) or "roots" music or "world" music. They are all euphemisms based on race and class, sometimes gender.