While I was out of town for 3 days, many new additions were made to the discussion, although some were just restatements of earlier points.
Let me address one point Barry made back up there about the use of 'inner focus' in many modern songs.

"There are also many traditional songs that deal with "I" and they are an important part of the canon. "

Well....sort of. Of course many traditional folks songs are written in ostensible 'first person'. "As *I* went out one May morning", "When *I* was a young man, *I* lived all alone, I worked at the weaver's trade...." etc.

But don't you see how that, in most older songs that survived, the *I* was a universal...it was meant to reflect a common experience of many *I's*. Stories of love, war, anger, murder, passion, joy,...that were not MEANT to be read as ONE specific persons life. Even the ones with no chorus, sung by a solitary ballad singer were seldom 'introverted' personal messages! (Yeah, I see your point about 'Greensleeves'....but I said seldom, and who do you know that sings Greensleeves? (other than the first verse, just to be silly)

   The songs which DID name specific individuals were generally not written by that person...("My name's Napolean Bonaparte, I'm the conqueror of nations")
Obviously, with the advent of recording, it was 'possible' to be aware of the author, but still most songs were thematically universal, whereas now the intent seems to be to "tell my story" and "make my personality a part of YOUR concern."

We KNOW the middle ground is fuzzy, and that things which were daily issues in the hundreds of years before the recording industry ane not 'quite' the issues of today...but those early issues made us what we are today. We KNOW that tastes change, and young people often want to express things differently...we simply want them to invent new descriptions for their new ways!

If you look in the DigiTrad database and analyze the songs that EVERYONE agrees are folk, you find a number of characteristics which are common (style, type of tune, chorus, topic/subject matter, etc..)
As Don Firth noted about one "By almost all criteria, Bob C.'s song is indeed a "folk song." Except one.". THESE are the songs we narrow-minded pedants make exceptions for! *grin* (Craig Johnson, who has been mentioned here many times and recorded by Art Thieme, does a FINE job of writing in the tradition, and has done a couple which have fooled folks).


I ask again, as I have so many times over the years in this forum...If 'folk' now means something different, what ARE we who want to cling to some older styles to do? What shall we call it? Do WE have to write a 2 paragraph explanation when WE have a concert or festival, similar to that Maryrff has done for her Richmond group?
It's all very well to say, "well, like it or not, that's what the public thinks of nowdays"...but still the question stands - What are we to CALL the older stuff in public?