I am not surprised that Frank Hamilton is ready, able and willing to sing those songs we, all, grew up with. He is, however, atypical. I can't remember the last time I heard an Americal "folksinger" present songs like "Erie Canal", "Darling Clementine", "Yankee Doodle" or any Foster song except "Hard Times" or "Angelina Baker" as a banjo solo. Our "folksingers" are too involved with contemporary songs, their own and others, to bother with their own roots. Maybe, they are contemptuous of these old standards because they find them boring and unrelated to their own lives. I know that the schools have pretty much abandoned American folk songs in what little remains of their music programs.
There are, of course, exceptions. Don Edwards has devoted his life to the study and performance of cowboy songs, Bill Dempsey does whole concerts of sea chanties and songs that everybody knows, Ricky Skaggs has no qualms about roasting an old chestnut or two. But, if we can guage from the posts on Mudcat and 99% of the sets we see in folk clubs and festival stages, old is out, familiar is forbidden and original is obligatory.