That's interesting, George. But whether you can call the amendments by Andy, Vin, etc., the 'folk process' rather than amendments proposed to you by the other singers and accepted by you, is open to question, IMO. In other words, you could consider them as contributing to the writing process and helping you refine the songs. The result is that the original version is changed to incorporate the changes. Is that the folk process? I'm not sure.

You obviously liked the amendments and accepted them, but I wonder if this would always be the case? I've heard people singing songs that I know well, by other living authors, and recognised that they had changed the words and/or the tune, in a way that I would not necessarily describe as an improvement (sometimes the tune had been 'flattened' or made more similar to another tune - I suspect the singer had done this inadvertently by mixing up two similar tunes; which could be easily done). I just wonder if the authors of those original songs would always be as magnanimous as you in accepting these changes (which I suspect were unintentional).

Still playing devil's advocate! :-)