"A folk song, to me, is a song with a strong (ie. readily hum-able) melody and intelligent lyrics, sang either with optional acoustic backing or unaccompanied. This may be a Traditional song (by which I mean an old song still widely sung and composed by somebody whose name is lost to posterity and thus credited to Trad); or it may be a song written by someone whose name is known and may be either dead or alive, however recent or otherwise. But the two most important identifying features of a folk song are a strong melody and intelligent lyrics."

Sorry, Gene, but no it isn't! Your 'definition' is what you would like folk song to be - not what it is.

For more information on what folk song is, please read Jim Carroll's post above.

The 1954 definition (quoted in Bert Lloyd's book and in a number of previous threads)with its three elements of continuity, variation and selection is, in my opinion, elegant and illuminating but doesn't include all of the types of music arbitrarily lumped into your definition.