Otis, IMHO you need to read a lot of the linked threads here before accepting what WMD (oops, WLD) says - he has opposed the linkage of "folk" as a concept to what has gone before ever since I first online met him, and it is contrary to the ideology of a "folk art" however you slice it.

If you want to conceptualise the ideology of "folk" from a modern perspective, it would be useful to investigate the roots of "folk metal" which I at best imperfectly understand (but for an old fogey I am learning) but which I understand largely divides into two classes - the racist/fascist on the one hand and the historical/mythological on the other (funny, I wonder where Wagner goes).

I have a view that differs from yours (and his) but at this stage I urge you merely to review the old phrase "analysis before synthesis".

BTW old as I am I have pretty recently done sound for grunge postgrunge and metal bands and I am not unreceptive to re-invention, but we all have roots.