Well, Ron... *I* have barely read that 1954 'definition'. I am trying to discuss, from a pragmatic viewpoint, what *I* am faced with....totally apart from your 'we all have to realize how things change and evolve' mantra. You do a radio show, and I am quite aware that it would have a hard time surviving if you limited programming to "Bill D's preferred format".
   Here in the DC area, our own Mary Cliff has made essentially the same point to me for years....yet she understands precisely what I am saying and tries hard to keep a 'reasonable' amount of.......whatever it is I am looking for - the 'older' sorts of folk.... alive and relevant. Sometimes, her program is excellent (in my view)...and sometimes it is full of newly written stuff, or older stuff 'speeded up and loudified' (to coin a phrase) by 'modern' young folks with LOTS of talent but not much perspective...and I end up turing it off.

Now, if I were running a radio station or financing a CD company...or even booking for festivals... I would no doubt realize that, in order to have listeners & customers, I have to offer what is 'popular'...and "louder and faster ...and more chords and navel gazing" IS a lot of what sells! Let's just be more candid about what it is and is not! It may have many roots in traditional folk, but it's very like the guy who claimed he owned George Washington's axe..."yeah, it's had 5 new handles and 2 new heads, but this is G.W.s axe!" He needs to call it something else...a 'replica'...whatever... and not use the words which should be reserved for the original.

    BECAUSE 'folks' have expanded and muddied the meaning and relevance of 'folk', I can no longer use it, except in certain situations, in its classic mode. *shrug*...so....I get by. As I said, I don't expect anyone to change and words... all I hope for is that the IDEA stays in the heads of enough people, even if it now takes 2-3 sentences to describe what used to be 'almost' clear in the phrase 'traditional folk'.

I would hope that that "true folklorist" you refer to can keep in HIS head some perspective on what the origins were, even as he "examines such trends and sees that (sic) connections."

I rest my case...now I go rest my body.