What the hell is SERIOUS folk music? I learned my first songs from my dad, orally transmitted from one generation to another. Many of them were Lonnie Donegan songs like "Does your chewing gum" and "My old man's a dustman" but also "Hang down your head Tom Dooley" and "Rock Island Line". Is serious folk music something you learned from a book and never sing?

To me, the only serious folk songs are ones people sing and the only serious tunes are ones people play.