I'm not quite in synch with Jerry on the definition, as I believe the term "folk" implies a lack of sophistication, in the individual or the culture that produced the song. (I swore I'd never get into one of these "what is folk discussions!) Jerry writes damn fine songs, many about small town life in the Middle West as he lovingly remembers it (band concerts in the park, county fairs, etc.), but I reserve the term "folk song" for those that have gone into oral tradition and have been modified by the process of oral transmission. The "folk" have a way of getting rid of (forgetting? deliberately altering?) a lot of the unnecessary verbiage that often surrounds the core of a song, pruning it, polishing it as it passes along, and often improving it greatly. Some of Jerry's songs have already begun to be misremembered, as it were, or learned from someone who learned them from someone who learned them from one of his recordings, and the alteration has begun. Jerry may not approve of some of the changes, but once the song is in the stream there's not much he can do about it. This is what I call the "continuing tradition" in which songs get created and then handed over to the process. Utah Phillips heard someone sing "Green Rolling Hills of West Virginia," introducing it as a traditional song. Rather than rising indignantly to his feet and saying, "Whoa! I WROTE that song!" he was delighted to see that one of his songs had successfully become part of the stream.

Gotta go to the post office. Have fun, everyone.

Sandy