Oh, this has been such an enjoyable read. Thank you. However for my own 2 cents, I once managed to offend the group of people I was trying to with the following statement. A folk tradition ceases to be when you remove it from the kitchen, or Fo'c'sle, and put it on stage. It the becomes performance art. To take a 150 year old song or chanty, spend a year rehearsing a beautiful and complicated vocal arrangement complete with poly-phonics, and present it in a concert hall for 6,000 people while playing $5,000 hand made guitars, is not really keeping alive any folk tradition. It's just making money, not unlike the Rolling Stones.