I really like that idea about "the mythological proportions of the present". Whether you want to call them "folk songs" or not, many of Stan Rogers' songs seem to me to find "the mythological proportions" of the present, of ordinary people's lives, and that's what makes them so gripping. For example, The Mary Ellen Carter, The Field Behind the Polow, Lies, and on and on.

Songs so written have a chance to live beyond their youth, and thus a chance to BECOME folksongs.

Dave Oesterreich