Never believed in the evolution of the folk song in any meaningful sense, in the same way that I don't believe singing historical songs keeps them 'alive'. They are products of their time which people perform in disrete contexts. They have almost no leverage on contemporary sensibilities unless one captures popular imagination like, say, Scarborugh Fair, mostly through another medium such as film or television.

I think folk songs are the work of genius (in its original sense) a wayward spirit speaking through one person, not some organic temporal transference. That auteurship isn't perceived in the same way as other forms is due to the political history surrounding the revivals and the agendas carried in their wake.