So does this count as a music thread or not?

I think below the line is just as much core Mudcat as above it anyway. Good threads can come out of either - and so can bad threads, of course.
Rules of thumb like "music thread good, BS thread bad" are just as much nonsense as "warm fuzzy thread good, argumentative thread bad".

I agree that the relationship between country and "folk" is potentially interesting. More especially when it come the varieties of both where stylistically they are more or less identical.