As a regular contributer here I have noticed a bias against Freemasonry on the few occassions the subject has arisen and for that reason I prefer to remain anonymous on this matter.
I can say that my experience of the organisation (in the UK) has been a very positive one, decent people with good values, no political or religous boundaries and no class division. I came to Freemasonry with a fair amount of scepticism and didn't expect to stay long, but I was very interested in the history and tradition of what is a very ancient organisation.
Music and singing play a large part of every meeting but I am completely unaware of any strategy (in the UK) to target the folk community or any other section of society.
Freemasonry, like many other bodies, is certainly in decline and I feel that there are some wonderful traditions that are worth maintaining, something I think many of those interested in folk music can identify with, but because part of the tradition of Freemasonry is to maintain a level of privacy, there is a certain amount of nonsense generated by those who have no first hand experience.
I expect that there will an outpouring of nonsense directly following this post and I'm not interested in getting into an argument with those who have already decided that there must be something sinister going on at these lodges. If you were to meet the other guys at my lodge you would know how funny that idea is.