"If all you have to do in order to justify this wide, inclusive use of 'folk' is provide a couple of counter-examples of SS performers who are not 'too' introspective, then all my attempts to show that a large % ARE introspective are easily dismissed."

Bill, it is not just ME that is making the connection. I will challenge your statement that a LARGE number of singer-songwriters are introspective, and I also challenge that introspective songs do not belong in the folk music family.

I'm sorry Bill, but you are starting your arguement with a set of rules that you feel cannot be challenged - "those who had the name and definitions first ought to have some claim to it" - no one can lay "claim" to the use of language. The term "folk music" was broad to begin with - going back to the first time the word was used to describe music of the "common people".

Your insistance on "labels" is your perogative. Do not expect everyone to fall in line behind it, nor do I expect everyone to accept singer-songwriters in the canon. Ozzy Osbourne is a singer-songwriter if you insist on using the definition.

Singer-songwriters, folk songs, and folk festivals come in many different flavors - there is no such "one size fits all" label that you can put upon it. Folk Music is, by its own definition, a broad term.