Adding to earlier postings from Ralphie (Hi Ralph) and Greg there is an excellent quote from William Butler Yeats which I always bear in mind when people start discussing the validity of a style or whether it is folk.

"Folk-art is indeed the oldest of the aristocracies of thought, and because it refuses what is passing and trivial, the merely clever and pretty, as certainly as the the vulgar and insincere, and because it has gathered into itself the simplest and most unforgettable thoughts of the generations, it is the soil where all art is rooted."

This, I think, is why Martin Carthy says that you can only damage taditional song by not perfoming it and Greg said time will sort the wheat from the chaff. Folk-art sorts itself out and our views won't affect it (well certainly not the views of a limited number of people sitting at PCs anyway). More strength to Jim for experimentation I'm sure he realises that the music will survive any approach because the merely clever etc (as in above) will vanish.