"But a good song is a good song, and if I hear a non-traditional song which engages me then I'll include it in my repertoire, and perform it in folk clubs and sessions."
Howard is right - sing what turns you on - definitions are for communication of ideas.
Interestingly (to me anyway) every singer we ever interviewed had their own form of defiition; it didn't necessarily express a preference, it just identified their personal relationships to their songs.
It seems to me that if organisers call their clubs 'folk' they have a responsibility (a) To realise the implications of the term in all its aspects, and (b) To ascertain that what they present bears some resemblence to the original meaning. It is not enough - for me anyway, to say "I don't know what folk is" any more than it would be for a carpenter to say "I don't know anything about woodwork" - it's what we took on wen we became involved.
I also believe there is a responsibility to the Harry Coxs and Sam Larners, but that is more complicated, and probably more of a personal thing with me.
Jim Carroll
PS Richard
"although I disapprove of the latter's adoption of a fake identity"
Can I assume you disapprove of Robert Zimmerman (whoops, Bob Dylan) for the same reason