There is an amazing suggestion earlier in this thread, that people ought to study Martin carthy, Ewan McColl, and Shirley Collins(this in the context of a discussion about exams in traditional music). Now, I am a huge admirer of Carthy, McColl and Collins. But I am perfectly sure that none of the three would describe themselves as traditional musicians. They do stuff with material of traditional origin, as did Vaughan William, Benjamin Britten and Percy Grainger before them. But that does not make them traditional musicians, which is another thing altogether (of course, it all depends on what you mean by "traditional". or "folk", for that matter).