I like chocolate eclairs, but someone tried to pass off one made with carob the other day...boy was HE sorry after my 2 hour lecture...☺

Poppa Gator:re:

"I contend that this very broad range of popular (i.e., widely disseminated) music ~ essentially, anything one might sing around a campfire ~ constitutes the real folk music of the world we live in today."

I know exactly what you mean, but I would express it differently. "Widely disseminated", to me, MEANS 'popular'...or pop-folk music. After it has been filtered and mellowed for a number of years, it may BECOME traditional and get absorbed into the realm of trad/folk. So, what the difference? Why get so picky? I just hope that using clarifying words can help retain clarity of thought and remind people that styles, melodies, topics (subject matter) and venues (how & why played) were quite different in earlier times. If they are all called the same thing each generation, no matter how different, who knows what chocolate eclairs will taste like in 100 years...