Sorry if this has already been mentioned; I didn;t read the whole thread.

Pete Seeger mentioned in "Johnny Appleseed Jr." once that he is not a professional folksinger, rather a professional singer of folk songs. He said that anyone who does it for a living is no longer a folk singer. Folk singers are those who sing in kitchens or on front porches and do it for the fun of it. According to Pet you can be a folk singer even if you have no "folk songs" in your repertoire.

Now let's not get into,"What is a folk song?"