I'm not entirely clear about what we're discussing here ~ especially if it's not yet another variation on "What Is Folk?"

I'll throw in these semi-random but hopefully relevant observations:

The learning and passing-along of songs is entirely different since the invention of sound recording devices than it ever was before. This is equally true of "folk" and "classical" music.

Within the realm of folk music, and especially within the most improvisatory and informal traditions or "sub-genres" (e.g., The Blues), the existence of a particular recording often takes on a sacrosanct "written-in-stone" aura that was never intended and should not be regarded as seriously as many "scholars" might prefer. A given folk artist may have sung and played a particular song just a bit differently every time he/she performed it, but the version that came out on the day Mr. Collector showed up with his tape recorder has now somehow become the one and only "true original" form. Not true! Contemporary musicians should feel just as free to rephrase and reinterpret as their predecessors did.