I've always found that "folksinger/minstrel" monicker, interesting. Have read many definitions of each, and there are certainly widely divergent opinions. Throw "troubadour" and "balladeer" into the mix, and you realize the terms mean specific things to a very few people. To most, they're pretty much all the same.

I was talking to a friend about this a few years ago, and asked "so what do you call a folksinger who'll take requests"? He fixed me with a stare and said "A jukebox"! Got a big laugh from that one.

There was another singer sort of in the Dyer-Bennet mold that I had an album of, named John Runge. Anyone familiar with him?

Rick