Someone mentioned above that they would like to believe we stayed true to the spirit of the music.

Folk etymology, taxonomy, chronology, derivation, attribution and all these myriad facets of this wonderful, rich argument, arise from this one common core: the particpants recognized what was happening in the songs themselves. That's the hook. That is the addiction. Some experience it as time-travel. Some experience as a connection to a period when reality was more solid and less worrisome. Some see it as a cascade of musical and literary threads handing off from person to person, supported by folklorists' documentation.

But under it all there is that one magic transformation. You don't get it when you hear Doris Day do Que Sera but you sure as hell get it when you hear a Portuguese trawlerman sing some sailor's song of which you can't understand a single word ! That spark is the same, transforming moment of the heart whether it is inspired by the Weavers, or Blind Lemon, or even sometimes the much debated Mister Dylan Zimmerman, master of folk opportunity and rhyme.

Unfortunately, the language falls short in providing in words a unique and unambiguous differentiation between that event and all the other flying scraps of meaning which have kept this thread and its cousins rolling on so long!!

Warm regards,

Amos