Traditional or folk or contempory accoustic singer/songerwriter or whatever. Songs sung for generations in a family or community, wheither the song is traditional or not, traveled from afar or not, if it's been adapted to a family or local style and/or adopted and embraced by that community is it now a traditional song? A singer from this family or community, would they not be a traditional singer & if someone got a song or two from one of the singers of this group would they then be a trad singer or would it take 25 or 30 songs or maybe it would need to be their whole repertoire? Would the street singer of the broadside (singer/songwriter) tradition be considered a trad singer of trad songs 100 yrs ago, any more or less than they would be today, even though their intent was commerical, & if a trad singer got hold of their broasheet material & took it back to their own community & made it theirs', does it then have to be sung for many generations first before it's considered entered into the traditional oral tradition? If I have a number of these songs in my repertoire from a number of these sources would I/could I be then a Trad. singer or am I a folk singer of trad music or just a singer who thinks he sings traditional/folk music which may in fact turnout to only be contempory accoustic music that happened to sneak into the repertior of a trad singer & accidently got recorded by a collector of trad music? If a trad singer gets paid are they no longer or are they less of a trad singer, if so then I won't pay to hear the Copper Family anymore & hope they'll come back & sing for free because I'd hate to contribute to them losing their status & become a family of professional folk singers, just doing a hand me down song. I used to play at sessions & parties with a friend, whom many consider to be one of the foremost Irish fiddlers living today, if I play the tunes I that I may have got from him, would I then be a trad musician or just a bodhran player or if I played the fiddle, a trad fiddler at least or would this friend just be a nice guy to have put up with my playing on what may or may not be a trad instrument? I also write songs, does this mean I hate myself or do I just hate what I write or do I hate what others write if it's not trad or folk & they say it is. They're are a few great writers & many lousy ones around that claim to be singer/songwritters in the folk tradition (?) & turn out accoustic trash & get paid, will their stuff die if it it's not accepted as folk or will it be pushed to the commerical limits, within in the realm of folk & we as folkies are forced to swallow a bitter pill? A politcian I once knew who got thrown out of office, not because he liked trad. music, once said (I don't know if he quoted someone else & refused to give credit) "if it looks like a duck & it walks like a duck & it talks like a duck, then it's a duck, but I'm not sure everyone would agree on what a duck is & we might end up fowl over a geese or a swan or that occassional mallard getting thrown in to fil out the bill. I do have an opinion on what is or isn't trad or folk or singer/songerwritter or contempory or trask but those are my own opinions & I'll hang on to them & hope others tolerate them as much as I would hope to tolerate theirs. Barry, who may or may not sing what he thinks he sings anymore & realizes that he answered nothing here.