I'm wondering, Art, if I explained how I came to be interested in traditional folk music you'd see why I'm wary of reserving the term "folk" exclusively in an academic, purist way.

Around the time I got my first acoustic guitar (at 20) I started listening to the sort of stuff that's marketed as "classic rock" -- Led Zeppelin and the Stones and what not. And what I found was that I was really strongly drawn to the mellower acoustic stuff that some of those bands were doing. Before long I was listening to Crosby, Stills, & Nash, the Grateful Dead, Bob Dylan -- all of which I thought of (in some loose sense) as "folk" style music largely because it was sort of marketed in that kind of vein. As years went by and I learned to play this sort of music I became interested in what music influenced these musicians I admired so much. If I liked Jerry Garcia and Bob Dylan and Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton, wouldn't it be worth checking out what they were listening to when they were learning to play? So I looked into it and then the names started popping up. Like Clapton (or maybe Page) calling Robert Johnson the greatest bluesman ever. Bob Dylan's great respect for Woody Guthrie. Jerry Garcia talking about learning Mississippi John Hurt songs. Who were these guys? What did they sound like? Well, a few visits to my record store and . . . well, you know. :)

My point is that if these 60's musicians hadn't had their names associated with the term "folk" even if only for commercial reasons, I don't really know if I'd have found this whole new (to me) world of music.

And maybe that's a crass way in. It might have been more noble in some sense to have come to traditional music because I wanted to learn the history of this country through hearing it from the "folk" who shaped it. But whatever, I'm hearing it now.

I respect your desire to maintain the integrity of traditional music. But if using the term "folk" leads someone who likes the sound of an acoustic guitar and a two part harmony down the path I came, the integrity will be preserved, not compromised.

Bryant.