I should have made it clear that I was speaking from a UK perspective. We do have an active and enthusiastic barbershop movement in this country, but songs/tunes that were composed in the 20th century wouldn't be regarded as traditional, especially when they have known lyricists and composers, and the core barbershop repertoire would never be described as "folk songs" in the UK.

As Eric says above, the precision of the arrangements and staging of barbershop songs is at variance with the folk tradition and processes. For some reason, singers' appearance as part of the presentation has never been regarded as important in folk. Showy dress is a normal feature of folk dance/morris groups, mummers, etc, but not of singing or instrumental groups. There are sound historical reasons why this is the case in folk and not in barbershop, and it's just one of the things that separates the two kinds of music.

I'm not saying any of this makes barbershop a less valid or appealing kind of music, I'm just trying to explain how it differs from folk/traditional music as I understand the terms.

Now, how long before someone comes up with the quote about the horse?

Marje