Glueman,
You are assuming a quest for authenticity and definition of traditional folk music as Collector Music that I don't see much of in the real world. A quest for authenticity is more about musicology than it is about music making. Being an adherent of a Collector Genre is more about librarianship or something. For the rest of us musicians, it's about the songs and tunes.

Sure, there are lots of people who are trying to reproduce as exactly as possible a type of sound from some other time or place. They are a distinct minority in the traditional music crowd. Although I can do it myself with some types of music, it's not really my thing, or that of the vast majority of people I play with. And even the most duplicative of the local musicians are willing to have a living room jam where anything goes, and where you find out all the other musical interests they have. The most important point is this: it is the music they are called to play, and the way in which they are called to play it. By what right do you mock them for their choice? Especially when the perjoratives you are using to refer to them are those of exclusion. In case you're not following me, mocking someone for their choices is a nasty sort of exclusivity.

Perhaps you are talking about the folk police, the authenticity nerds who confuse the words 'historical' and 'traditional'? And who want to tell you all about it? Is this the group on which you are basing you snide remarks about traditional musicians? I've only ever had three encounters with this type, and I can assure you that anyone who knows the 'authentic' way could tell you all about how my music diverges from that. 99.999% of them, however, are smart enough and well-rounded enough to know that I'm not trying to reproduce a specific traditional sound, and they just go ahead and enjoy the music anyway.

My request: Please stop making negative statements that are broad enough to include all the people who enjoy playing a type of music. They feel impelled to defend themselves against your comments, and pretty soon we have a fight about a subject that never existed in the first place.

John