"You and Phil are the only ones who are confused, Jim."
Steve,
For all of Muskett's anarchisticly antagonistic and extremely ignorant ramblings and Al's patronising insulting, I think I find your few contributions to this subject the most disturbing, as they come from someone whose work I respect.
There is no "widely accepted genre/style that uses the same word" - how can there be?
Apart from the brief period when the predatory music industry milked folk- song for what it could take from it, the influence of folk song has never really spread wider than the club scene - we never managed to actively involve enough people for there to be such an alternative definition.
What we have is a definition based on research, which was almost immediately recognised and never seriously challenged ('54), and a mish-mash of unsubstantiated claims by self interested clubs and singer-songwriters, that what they are putting on or composing constitute 'a new folk music'.
The latter, tiny minority that they are, have no consensus among themselves as to what constitutes 'the new folk music' - look at their output - rock, 1950s hits, Beatles songs, Dylan (even after he had turned his back on the folk scene - also having milked it dry) - anything that takes their fancy.
Add to this, statements by a club organisers that in order to get some idea of what kind of songs I will find at any folk club, I will have to research it beforehand.
Others have said that while they have some sympathy with what I say, they will settle for what is happening at the clubs today, albeit, with some regret.
We have singularly failed to engage the general public in what some of us believe to be an extremely important and still relevant aspect of our culture.
So much of what is 'generally believed' by them has to be based on their ignorance of the subject - unless things have changed radically, I don't recall it being on school curricula, and higher education seems to now abandoned it (with a few notable exceptions)      
Diminishing self-interest pressure groups in the form of Folk Clubs, combined with general ignorance, and above all, disinterest, do not change dictionary definitions, so the prevailing definition continues to be the one to rely on - for me anyway.
The other thing that disturbs be here is the failure to recognise the important role of the local club - the move towards turning club nights into somewhat exclusive concerts hosting guest with out-of-reach expensive instrument and equipment playing music that has far more to do with the pop scene than 'the folk' as I know them to be.
This seems to have turned the revival from the democratic, freedom-bringing movement that it once was when it gave us all an equal right to strut our stuff, to a poor relation of the established music industry - pop wannabes.
The strength of the local clubs was that we didn't have to up sticks and head for a festival when wanted to hear our music - it was on our doorsteps and we could comfortably fit it into our everyday lives, where it rightfully belongs and where it has been for centuries - that is why folk song was such a strong part of the culture of working people.
They were places where those of us involved in field-work cold introduce the singers we met - ask anybody who went to a night where Walter Pardon guested, or where The Stewart family, with their wealth of songs an stories, entertained us - ask anybody who saw Mikeen McCarthy or Mary Delaney at the Singers Club or at The Musical Traditions club, or further back, Sam Larner, Jeannie Robertson, Harry Cox, Charlie Wills, Willie Scott.....
If they turned up today, they's be sat in a row, given a pint and treated to the loud, unmusical mish-mash that passes for folk today - the way it should be done.
The clubs were the doorways that many of us stepped through to acquaint ourselves with and enjoy our heritage, and for some of us, to lift up the corners to find out what was underneath.
Local clubs in places like Birmingham, Manchester and in particular, London, opened up new areas of local repertoire, adding to an already rich store - festivals will never do this in a million years.
The festivals were an added bonus - a chance to show what you were doing in your area and learn what others were up to - never anything more than that.
I very much doubt if the folkie juggernaut can be stopped on its way to self-destruction - I hope some of our researchers aren't clinging on to tightly to go with it.
This is not a "cheap shot" - it's the impression I have gained from what you have said so far - correct me if I am wrong.
Jim Carroll