"the tradition is changing. my instrumental influences were the blues project guys"
You are talking to peoples tastes changing - not the music which has been documented as folk.
I can like all the people you mention and still like the music I know to be as folk - in that way I can use the term to cater for all my different aspects of interest of the genre.
"They'll call it "folk," and their friends will agree."
Fine - they can call it 'butty music' if they like but it anin't a butty if it hasn't got butter on it.
You wanted a definition - you have '54 and yo have the Oxford Dictionary one
So far you've come up with "people will call it whatever they wish"
Doesn't mean a damn thing and it helps to confuse rather than to bring people to a specified type of music and help people enjoy and understand it for what it is and what it signifies.
I've described what has happened here in Ireland by deciding what you mean and going for it - I am aware what has happened to folk music in Britain
I'll stick with what I know, thanks all the same.
Jim Carroll