What an interesting thread. I've thought quite a bit about this over the years. That the attitude and approach toward folk music differs from right to left bank of the Atlantic is apparent. I have a few ideas as to why this may be so. It wasn't always this way. America has had a better relationship with her own musical past than she does today. Here's one idea. American folksingers (who tend to be politically liberal) are uncomfortable singing Steven Foster songs (they are, by today's standards, incredably racist and patronizing), and it's tough to romanticise songs of the western expansion (we are, now, aware of the injustices perpetrated by the "Americans" against the "Indians") and, how can we sing what we, now, know to be, pro-war songs. So many folksingers seem embarrassed by their national policies and they equate "patriotism" with the oppressive right and wind up with less desire to immerse themselves in American historical culture (which is what folk music is)
Well, that's one idea. Another is that it might, all, be cyclical. Every once in a while, American pop culture catches up with its roots and, whether it's Burl Ives and The Weavers in the 40's (Boy, did you ever think you'd read those two names in the same sentence?),
Joan Baez, The Kingston Trio, Harry Belafonte, Guy Mitchell, Pete Seeger, Bruce Springstien, O Brother or whoever is the next one to make it OK to love American folksongs as I, and I suspect a few of you, do.