And that's where I'm coming from. To me, if a song hasn't gone through that process, I cannot accept it as a "folk song." It may be an excellent song, and it may sound like a folk song, but if, so far, it is sung only by the person who wrote it, it simply does not qualify. It may eventually. But the person who says, "This is a folk song I just wrote" simply has no concept of what a folk song really is.

A folk song is like a well-worn bannister, lustrous with the polish of long usage by many hands.

Don Firth