"What really pisses me off is that someone can make a ludicrous statement to the effect that C# ignored the plethora of songs about 'fornication with faeries', and that I am the only poster to take issue with it."

Yes, 'Sharp eye ..." you're absolutely right - it is a ludicrous statement (sorry, I'm rather late to this thread). I think that you make a lot of very reasonable and valid points - but you have, as usual, upset all the rockers and punkifiers out there who want folk song to be something (or some things) its not so that they can claim it for their own.

What pisses me off is that, in the "Imagined Village" project quoted above, we are expected to kow-tow to yet another attempt to make trad. song more 'relevant' to today - how many times have we heard that in the last 40 years?

Actually, I like folk song precisely because it's not 'exactly' relevent to today and doesn't contain references to tiresome contemporary things like punks, clubs, drugs etc. I hate those things and they are definitely NOT relevant to me! If you really must make folk song 'relevant', why not really listen to it for a change (rather than rushing in and making up bullshit) and appreciate how it gives a different perspective on the 'human condition'.