Shimrod,

As someone who hasn't learned much in 25 years:

My opinion (again)

(1) Music genres like folk, jazz, rock, classical can be defined in terms of style, idioms, etc. It isn't rocket science to work out which is which in many cases, and as such it doesn't need a rule book.

(2) There will always be grey areas and cross-over between styles, e.g. Go and Enlist For a Sailor, On Board the Kangaroo, but music hall songs written by Harry Clifton, mid 1840s, the formaer collected by Hammond or Gardner in Basingstoke at the time Clifton was performing in provincial venues.

(3) Having too rigid definitions, what happens to songs like Fiddlers green, do we define it as "Sounds like folk music but it isn't really because it was written".

In my childhood I used to watch the Spinners Christmas Concerts, and for me personally, it was what defined folk music for me, even though not every song was traditional.

On the other hand, I have been to folk clubs and heard offerings by singer-songwriters which would take a phenominal stretch of the imagination for ME to define it as folk. I have also heard lots of what I would call Jazz, but a jazz expert probably wouldn't.

So I am not saying that somethiong is folk because someone wants to call it that. Those who know me also know that in some areas I am a purist, particularly maritime song, and that I define a shanty as a song that can be used to carry out the job for which it was made, and the words are relevant to the perspective of the shantyman, i.e. the correct or sailorised use of technical language, otherwise it would be a sea song (not necesarily folk, but there are some dodgy parlour songs!!!).