Btw Blandiver offering provocative insights here as usual. I'm fairly sold on the paternalistic condescension theme where of the origins of the academic concept of 'folk' is concerned. Less so on the model railway analogy which I see existing more where a specific belief in the "continuance of a tradition" also exists, rather than simply in contemporary people singing old songs. If I participate in an am dram production of The Merry Wives of Windsor, it's not under the illusion that I'm maintaining some archaic dramatic 'tradition' I do it for the sake of doing it and nothing else. LIkewise singing, of anything at all; be it Handel, Little Dragon or those funny old traditional songs. It's the context of a 'folk scene' which believes itself to be preserving and continuing some ye old tradition. that turns the songs into LARP.