in the past people have called their clubs,Traditional song/ music clubs,or Acoustic Music clubs, or Blues club,because they can define what they mean.
now if I see the name Andy Caven,I know what I am going to get,likewise if I see the names Martin Carthy or Dick Miles.,but if we cant define folk song,what is a folk club?
but no one not even BERT lLOYD can define folk song,so why use a term that cant be defined,or means different things to different people.,unless you know who the guest is you dont know what you are going to get,let alone what youmight get from the floor singers .
if folk song is to be defined solely by that fact it has been folk processed,then we let in the wheel barrow song,but exclude Masters of War,Sorry but that is nonsensical.,because one is fine song at a football match for 30 seconds,but a whole night of it or similiar football chants which qualify because they have been folk processed,would empty most folk clubs.
we all make subjective qualitative decisions when we learn songs, most people make that decision based upon quality,the quality of the words or the melody, plus the style, we do not decide that we are going to sing a song only if it has been folk processed.,that is as daft as the singer who says I will only sing a song if it was written before 1900.
   yes,I did meet someone once who defined Traditional song that way.
so why are we calling folk clubs, folk clubs,if we dont know what a folk song is,if we define folk songs as being songs that are exclusively songs that have been folk processed,we rule out alot of quality modern compositions,plus traditional songs of which there might be only one version,but logically have to allow football songs,but the rub is we dont allow football songs ,because the audience would probably vote with their feet.