I've just been reading Andrew Motion's book "Ways of Life", and, in the section on Bob Dylan, Andrew talks abouts Dylan's frustration with the US folk scene(or maybe just the NJ folk scene) and he includes this quote from Bob.

"Folk music was a strict and rigid establishment. If you sang Southern mountain blues, you didn't sing Southern mountain ballads and you didn't sing city blues. If you sang Texas cowboy songs, you didn't sing English ballads. It was really pathetic. You just didn't"

Is that correct? What about Pete Seeger, and Carolyn Hester, and, Joan Baez for that matter.