Thomas,
    I don't know how you pulled any hint of competitive music out of my post, but I can assure you that I don't use to music to compete on any level. I speak out against musical competitions in any organization I'm involved in that starts leaning that way. I see music as a way of sharing, and get turned off whenever I see pros getting professionally competitive, or session players playing musical one-upmanship games.
    I can also assure you that my definition of "what sounds like folk music" is extremely broad. Even though I play mostly traditional folk music, there is nothing of the traditionalist about me. Folk music spreads a vast and, fortunately, usually very inclusive umbrella.
    Never having had any formal musical training (except, a little, as a percussionist in high school), I am usually in awe of people who can get the kind of versatility out of their instruments that classical training can bring. I am envious of people who can sight read music. I have had the good fortune to play with some very highly trained classical musicians who are great folk musicians. Also some great folk musicians with no training at all. And every where in between.
    I'm sure that a lot of people here have had the experience of listening to an Irish reel played on a violin without any lilt. It sounds pretty flat, and loses the rhythm that makes the tune what it is. Another classic example is a folk song with a conatgious rhythm being turned into an art song by an operatically trained singer. Or blues played without the subtle syncopations that make it sound like the blues. I will defend to my last breath the right of any musician to play any music in whatever way turns their crank. But that doesn't mean I enjoy listening to it all, or that it meets my private aesthetic of what any genre of music ought to sound like. Or that I will be willing to spend much time playing along.
    I find myself at a bit of a disadvantage here. You seem to know me, but I can't place you, at least not by the moniker "Thomas the Rhymer". Is there another name I would likely know you by, and where have we met?

John Peekstok