No... I would prefer it if you would define it for us Richard since it seems to be so important to you.

I don't really care whether The Guardian defines Ani DiFranco as a folksinger or not, or Bob Dylan, or Richard Thompson. I like all of their music. There are others in that genre I do not care for so much but perhaps others prefer them.

I also like many (though not all) performers of traditional song and music, blues and other genres. I don't really care what artifical category they are put into.

I also have no problem if someone else likes what I do not like. It is to be celebrated that there is diversity and something for everybody.

I care much more about, for instance, what is happening in Burma and in some other parts of the world than how The Guardian deems to decribe a singer.

I do find it disturbing, and I have to blame myself solely and entirely for this, that I have spent an unnecessarily long part of my life reading Mudcat threads about "What is Folk?"

On the positive side, this thread had a golden lining in that it has made me decide not to waste any more of my life like that.

RS