Yeah but...

Paul and Jack;

I am sure you have an idea of what is folk and what isn't. (iTunes does interesting things to your collection if you let it decide the genre, especially music you purchase on it!)

But you know, my take on what is folk may be different to what you reckon is folk. or the person reading this may have yet a different take.

I was at a festival in California the other year and a couple of weeks later was at a folk festival in Yorkshire. I didn't see the Morris dancers in California and certainly didn't see the kids rapping about their take on life when in Yorkshire.

Are they both folk?

Be careful. These threads can get into all sorts of corners and we all end up none the wiser. At some point, somebody will point out a date in, i think it is the '50s and say that was the definition of folk so everything else is false.

Rubbish. Folk is anything that a folk audience wants to put up with. Difficult to argue with, that. Don't get too upset, I used to argue otherwise till I realised the truth of it.

I just bought a carbon fibre guitar. I will still be hammering out traditional music with it though. The lack of spruce, mahogany and heritage doesn't change the songs. I write songs, just that. I choose to play them in folk clubs for all sorts of reasons. I am classed by others as a folk act.

Beauty is, as they say, in the eye of the beholder.

I love the idea of young people coming through. Folk is in the DNA of popular music, mainly because I say it is, so there. Rod Stewart's finest patch was his "folk" patch. Led Zeppelin weave folk themes through their unique sound... Oh, and my wedding the other year.. We came down the aisle, (hotel not church) to McColl's "First Time Ever I Saw Your Face." Sang by... The Stereophonics with Jools Holland & His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra. (CD, not live!) Was that a folk song? Discuss.

When I mentioned on this forum a long time ago about the exciting younger sounds in folk, some contributors dismissed them as "oh, the so called young turks."   Those comments saddened me, really did.   If folk music can be said to harness one thing, it is evolution. Music of the people includes music of the people today, not just nostalgic or historical concerns. Martin Carthy being the ideal example; the Carthy of when I were a lad and the Carthy of Imagined Village are the same thing, but both relevant to the broad interest of the day.

You don't own a genre by growing a beard.....