1. The purpose here is not to put down contemporary easy listening singer songwriters but to give them their own genre within the broad category of folk- just like blues or country under the broadest definition of folk.

2. The reason this is important is that there is a limited amount of media for Traditional Folk and that to share it with a different genre disproportionately makes the traditional folk slice of the pie ever thinner. Contemporary Traditional Sounding singer songwriters I grant a part of that slice but not the Contemporary easy listening Singer songwriters. They have their own slice once the traditional folk slice has been cut. (like blues or country would have a similar size.) A distant cousin rather than a brother.

3. Yes some songs are new some are old but there is something other than age there is style. No matter how old a blues song is it is still blues. If it is written and performed in a traditional manner it is traditional blues. Age has nothing to do with it. If contemporary easy listening singer songwriter music does not quack like a trad folk duck, walk like a trad folk duck it is not a trad folk duck and it should be proud to be what it is and given a place of its own and one not carved out of the places of others.

4. I see lots of musicians that share. I have said that. Often however the sharing is behind the stage with other musicians often behind that snow fence that separates them from the audience. My wide experience tells me that for the most part the musician will take endless time tuning up, deduct that time from the performance time, perform, sell cds, tee shirts, get paid and be on the next bus out of town immediately. There are exceptions however I am seeing festivals become 99.9 % performer providing entertainment to the Crowd and not transmission and efforts at transmission extremely minimal.

When a performer simply entertains without any measures to pass along the music to others he or she is not positivly impacting transmission.
Festivals should make sure that an impact statement is provided by the performer and I mean all of them showing what steps they have taken in their performance or appearance to postivily impact transmission. If this happens on a wide basis we will see more people receiving the music as a part of their memory, lives etc. That will create more demand for a very little investment and will be helping more than recordings or libraries to actively preserve and extend the tradition as it has been for centuries.

The obligation is much more than entertainment when you call it folk.

And yes the opportunity still exists to turn it around-

Conrad