Steve,

"Punk" as folk music? Frank Hamilton won't like that-BG- (see his comments above)--

Seriously, I think your thoughts on this are valid--I would make a point (a compulsion of mine, I am afraid..) that it isn't a question of deciding what is "in" or "out", and, a lot of the time, that seems to be what people are trying to do--

The point of using all these names and definitions and analyses is just to an attempt to the genesis and significance of certain pieces of music--

Most performers use personal taste, rather than folkloric pedigrees to develop their set lists (unless it is for a cultural or historical presentation), and when people talk about traditions, it is generally because they want to preserve or at least document something, rather that simply exclude something else--