Worth a read, particularly for those who have posted here who seem to have little respect for the tradition, but still want to call what they do folk.

The thing to really respect is the difference between FOLK TRADITION and FOLK REVIVAL and then to Know Thy Place, which no one seems too bothered about these days. The singer of Traditional Ballads down your local local folk club is not likely to be a Traditional Singer. Folk is a Very Modern Phenomenon and might be a tad too self-conscious of itself as being traditional to be truly Traditional, unless it means Traditional as in these Traditional Style Fish and Chips you can buy here in Fleetwood (as oppose to what I wonder? The more experimental sort on offer down th'road in Cleveleys?). Tradition as Old Fashioned. How depressing can you get?

Musical Tradition is this magical thing that happens when a human being is moved to go out to buy their first musical instrument in a state of wide eyed Epiphany, and begin to Experience music for themselves and on their own subjective terms (informed by a keen awareness of The Objective Condition of Culture) whatever the idiom that consumes their passions, whatever context they end up playing in. They learn their chops, they pay their dues, and so the perfect & uniquely human tradition of music making is assured survival for another lifetime among billions of lifetimes. They might end up playing Bach at Chethams or else singing this on the street corner in St. Annes Square in MCR like the busker we saw yesterday:

There's a sign on the wall but she wants to be sure
'Cause you know sometimes words have two meanings.   

Or they might end up doing both, and more besides, thus honouring the tradition simply by doing what we all must do anyway.