When I hear a song such as "City of New Orleans," and can relate to the story within - the loss of the "name" trains of my childhood like the Santa Fe "Chiefs," etc., I think of it as a folk song. Gordon Lightfoot's "Edmund Fitzgerald" evokes the pain of loss and the memory of bold sailors doomed every bit as much as sailing songs of years past. One major difference is in the instrumentation and playing skill of performers. We think of this music as too "polished" or the chord structure too "modern" somehow, especially when amplified and skillfully mixed. Go past that veneer and look at the soul of the song.