"And just where did I say I don't believe in research?"
Please don't make me dig it out - you said it word for word - If I am wrong, please show me some of yours.
Folk was a term conceived to identify and explain a cultural phenomenon and its origins - if you've got a better one, let's have it.
Banjiman:
Plenty of example of people who would be 'folk' enough for me - Terry Yarnell, Bob Blair, Len Graham, Kevin and Ellen Mitchell, Gordeanna McCulloch, Sara Grey, Peggy Seeger..... hundreds of Irish singers and musicians (all bringing in audiences and attracting youngsters onto the scene over here).
Whether they would bring in audiences is beside the point of this argument - I really don't adapt my definitions to fill the clubs; words mean what they mean.
Jim Carroll