If someone sings a Buddy Holly song at a folk club, I hope they get a polite round of applause at the end.

That's the thing about music of the people. People like to decide what it is.

Anyway, this thread asks what makes a new song folk, and Buddy Holly songs are much older than many of the songs that Child collected were in his day.

Folk clubs are a broad church, especially now less pendants turn up and try to spoil them. That said, the quality is on a downward trend in many clubs. It isn't so much a talent thing as laziness. More people with songbooks trying them out for the first time having never spent time at home getting familiar with the song. I just feel that's slightly insulting to a listening audience, let alone rummaging through their books whilst others are trying to entertain them.

The folk club discussion is a red herring here. If it fits the style genre, it is folk. It's vintage or authorship is a side issue.

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