I am astonished that the American view seems absent in this thread, though much of is back-and- forth between a few fellas. I'm not sure it's resolved any of the "drawing a line" issues, but in the venn diagram sorting out of contemporary folk there is a large group we call "Singer-songwriters." Within that designation, there is also a large spectrum, which in this context, could be looked at as "taste"

--On the shallow end of content, you have what Sandy Paton used to call "omphaloscopists" - entirely self refferential, no background in trad, just willing to play an acoustic guitar. A sub-set of these are people who style themselves"folk" to get booked into nice folk venues only until they make the jump to larger halls and big tickets. Got played by booking a couple of these.

-- On the deeply traditional end, you have writers who come out of the tradition, sing traditional, and expand it with traditionally styled songs. Si Kahn, Ian Robb, Jean Ritchie, David Weber, Craig Johnson, Gordon Bok, Andy M. Stewart, Jennifer Cutting - just a few who come to mind as illustrations.

-- Then there are those who are genre-spanning, trad-folk-pop-rock-jazz-blues-world adventurers. Lots of exciting people in this category, Richard Thompson at the top of that list, with staunch fans in both trad folk and rock camps. I got a kick out one concert where you could tell where all the traddies were sitting: we were the ones who got the jokes about Morris Dancers.

Gordon Lightfoot is definitly pop- rock, yet his ballad "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" has become traditional Great Lakes ballad.The Irish and maritime music I enjoy has a plethora of rock-pop/ folk-rock: Gaelic Storm, Great Big Sea. England had Fairport and Steeleye Span.

And there are those who take trad, and singer-songwriters and package them up as pop. in the US, on PBS we get "Celtic Women"(Barbie has a bódhran) "Irish Rovers" and "Peter, Paul & Mary" on endless repeats during pledge drive. Some of this makes my teeth ache, but it illustrates part of what the "folk music audience" encompases.

I am quite comfortable with using "Trad Folk" for them 'as gots a pedigeee & history, "Contemporary Folk" for genre spanning, and of them "Singer Songwriters" more specificly for those who mainly perform their own songs, no matter how traditional sounding or not. This is how I differentiate my tastes in folk song. (Too tired to mention tunes in the trad/contemporary debate)

As always, your milage may vary- this is not a debate, it's my opinion, solely.

Joanne in Cleveland (who ironicly gets billed as "our traditionalist" at open mics, where I tend to sing lots of the singer-songwriter material)