I suppose part of the answer to Ed's question is that the "folk music" only exists for people outside of the culture that created it--if you are a part of the culture, it is just music, and you don't need to go to somewhere else to hear it and talk about it--

It has always seemed to me that part of the cost of becoming a part of mainstream Western society (don't know what else to call it) is that you lose your roots. A lot of the people involved in folk clubs, tradtional music of one sort or another, and folk revival stuff are trying to recapture some of what was is missing in the mainstream--

Stuff like playing music, and singing, and and having a common shared experience that isn't connected to TV or movies or radio or TGI Fridays--