Yeah,

When does it stop being folk music?

I've got a vinyl record with some prison worker singing a field holler entitled "Baby, Please Don't Go." I think we would all agree this is folk music.

I'm sure some Delta blues guitarist picked this song up and added a guitar part (probably with slide in open G tuning). Most of us would still be calling that folk music.

Well, ole Mc Kinley Morgenfield (aka Muddy Waters) played the same song in Chicago. You know he heard it in the Delta. Now, we get a little iffy. He used his electric band. Is it folk? I don't know. Is it blues? Hell, yeah.

Then in the late '60's some punk in England named Van Morrison got together with some studio musicians and called the band "Them." The flip side of their hit "Gloria" (you know, G, L, O, R, I, A, Glo-o-o-ria!!!) was a little ditty called "Baby, Please Don't Go." Mucho faster than Muddy. Is it folk music? Oh, I think not, not by now. I did enjoy it, though. More than "Gloria".

And now that guy Morrison is singing Celtic music. Is that folk?

Just a little side trip. I am surprised how many of us have Led Zeppelin albums (oh yes, lots of vinyl I bet). Thought it was only me. My listening emphasis has gone from pop-rock, to folk, to '70's rock, and back to folk. Maybe we should just appreciate the flattery of folk music implied in the use of folk-songs, folk instruments, and folk-tunes in modern music of any sort. Maybe we should also be sure to point it out when we hear it.

Roger in Baltimore