The various and varying definitions of what people call 'Folk' music is something that will, no doubt, be discussed, argued about and generally tossed back and forth for a long long time to come, BUT.....I offer my own pennorth worth, for what it's worth. Traditional folk music, I feel, was something that was used to record....well, anything you care to mention really: events, comment, love songs etc etc. For instance: in the village where I currently live, there was an 'event', over an hundred and fifty years ago that, as far as I have been able to discover, was never actually 'recorded' in song. Basically, two thirds of the entire town was burnt down after somebody got careless in a local bakers. Now, I've checked around, as much as I was able to, talking with local historians, reading eye-witness accounts and generally researching the incident, and drew a large blank. Some may call it presumptious, but I decided it was about time that the 'Great Fire of Chudleigh' was recorded, in song. So I wrote it. It's a folk song, in the 'traditional' style, recording a momentous event in our local history. I sang it at the club, in front of six or so 'purists', who were our guests that night, and received a favourable response. It may never become accepted as such, but I feel it IS a folk song, even though it's new and ( as yet ) 'unaccepted'. It's a song about the people, for the memory of the people who went through that time, to remind the people who are around today about a little of what makes the place where they live the place it is. Does that make sense ? Well, it does to me. And I think it's a folk song - so there !!! Teller.