Just got back from a great weekend at the Osmotherley Gathering, where I listened to some superb singer/sonwriters, and there is something that is genuinely puzzling me: is the 'folk process' still going on, and if and when does a modern song become a folk song? Let me cite a couple of examples from personal experience, which are in no way unique to me.

I wrote a song called Beggars' Litany, based on the old couplet "from Hull, Hell and Halifax" etc., the first written version of which goes back to at least the 1630s and is obviously much older than that. It has appeared in a number of songs, not least The Dalesman's Litany. I have performed my song frequently but was amazed when a respected folk musician said that he had listened to someone singing it a couple of days previously and claiming it was a traditional song.

The second example is a song I wrote based on a story told to me by a family acquaintance, who was an old Yorkshire Wolds farmer, about the transition from horses to tractors. I sang this recently in a pub (funnily enough called The Chestnut Horse) in the very area that the song is about. Having finished it, an elderly bloke sat in front turned round, tears streaming down his face, and said that the song had touched him as that was exactly what had happened on his father's farm. This song was fortunate enough to win the songwriting competition at Osmotherley this weekend and one of the comments was that "it is already sounding like a classic".

So, my questions are: are these songs folk songs and, if not, what are they; will they ever become folk songs; and, if not, why not?