I think I acquired the distinction from an article by or about Martin Carthy, a long time ago.


1. Singer-songwriters, or acoustic performers - but IMHO an new term that accurately describes new material in the genre of the old is desperately needed so that people can stop saying "folk" when they mean something else.

2. When it meets the 1954 definition (although some attention might be needed to amend the definition so that it does not automatically exclude items of known authorship or items first published in printed form, which I have heard asserted to exclude "the Cutty Wren")

3. See above. It is not a matter of style or form, although the music encyclopaedias will set out characteristics of form, scales or modes used, and language that are found. Those are matters of observation not definition.