I don't believe that folk means anything different today than it did yesterday.
I do think that commerical endevors do try to obscure the scope of the folk umbrella so as to include whatever little genre their at present trying to sell/out.

Thanks Bill for the nice explanition of the folk "I" meaning us all & the SS "I" meaning me.

So why would a premoter advertise a festival of singer songwriters when they can hide it's content when pushing it off on the public as a folk festival?
Who would one be targeting by billing a SongSmith's Festival? Or a SingerSongWriter's Festival? Not much attraction there is there?
Folk Festival does sound much better, doesn't it?

If the folk community deceides what is contemporary folk music (they don't need a tech manual to follow) by keeping what's worthy of the title of "folk" alive just by the mere singing of it & letting the rest rot by the way side then why do these others who are not "folk" artists who are not considered folk singers get hire to plug their wares when their wares aren't being carried by the folksingers themselves nor their community? It sounds to me like someone's putting the real ass before the cart.
Shouldn't the songs of a songwriter go into the folk repertoire before they're called folk singers (unless they are already singers of folksongs). If they sing only their own songs (or those of companions SS) what are they then but just singer songwriters (not even singers of songwriters) & not much else. Some folk singers or singers of folk songs do also write but are not considered writers of folk songs, at least not until the folk community & other folk singers have picked up their songs & started to run with them.

Thank you, so far, all for such a great discussion & debate & for keeping it so civil & mild mannered, you all do the 'Cat" a great servive & credit to yourselves.

Keep on, please

Barry