Why can't a folk song grow from any specific source such as a recording or even a print version as did the revival of Barbara Allen? Where it comes from makes no difference as
long as it is a part of the process of change and variation.

If people take it up, preserve it through the ages, and it is common property, not
intellectual property by an individual who derives income from it, then it is a folk song.

Why have these folksongs survived? Because enough people sang 'em, changed 'em
and may have forgotten who wrote 'em.

Any one of the songs being written today is potential for being part of the "process".

But newly minted, they are not.

Frank Hamilton