I've always used the term to denote someone who carries a song that wasn't learned from a record, but from an old source, such as mothers knee. It does, to me, denote an old person, but old isn't demeaning, just a description. I qualify as old.
Perhaps we are talking here of the way this language is changing.
Gay. Queer. Cool. Black. White. Blue. Pig. Feminine. Chauvinist. It's a BIG list.