role of contemporary song in folk music...

I would have thought that it should be the other way around. Contemporary song cannot influence what has happened in the past.

1. All that you can find - Tom Paxton, Lionel Bart (that great song thief), Harry Lauder, Marie LLoyd, Lonnie Donnegan and Gordon Lightfoot come to mind.

2. This is the best place there is.

3. Yes, but I don't often use traditional styles or themes.

4. They should be. It's all part of a cultural continuum.

5. What is important is instinctively using your own cultural background. Any attempt at copying a particular style or tradition is pretty pathetic unless you have a specific point to make in an individual song.