Notice that none of the forum old timers are getting in this conversation? ***LOL*** We have had this conversation a lot of times, it always disintegrates into an argument about singer songwriters being folksingers i.e. do your own thing, and has a zillion posts.

Songs being written in this century, specifically in the last 20 years cannot be TRADITIONAL songs. Nor can they be folk songs. What they can be are songs sung/written in a folk style.   Singers who sing in a folk style, such as myself and George P and all the others here, may perform in a folk style. We may sing and play TRADITIONAL folk music in addition to contemporary folk style music.

As to what songs will become TRADITIONAL folk songs from today, I doubt that any of them will. Things like the internet, and the way we catalogue and document, have made the TRAD or ANON labels obsolete. It seems to me that we have moved to the point now of simply writing good songs in the folk style. TRADITIONAL folk songs, like Chanties, will become quantifiable and the discoveries of found ones in old archives by collectors like Dan Milner will be a big thing.

I agree with the sentiment that we should simply encourage singers to find their voice and write folk style songs in the TRADITIONAL style. We should also encourage and introduce young singers to the marvellous old TRADITIONAL songs. When we do this, they see the correlation and relevance of this music to today. And they will write songs relevant to what is going on now. This is the folk process at its best.

Mick