I have, in my mind, a clear distinction between a traditional song in a musical sense and a traditional song in the manner of its presentation. Messing around with the instrumentation, harmony, speed, or style of singing doesn't change the melody or the lyrics, which remain traditional.

A traditional presentation (if that's the right word) is, for me, a different animal. My problem with trying to quantify that is that we start talking about history: which instruments are traditional for that song? Do we have to find out which instruments were in use when the song was first being sung? If so, what does that do to the living tradition? I perform songs that cover a range of about 700 years, and come from most of Europe and half of the United States. In order to be "traditional" in the presentation of all these songs, do I have to go around with a truck full of different versions of historical instruments? Should I dress the part for each era and country?

Which venues are traditional for the playing of traditional music? If I'm trying to be traditional in my music making (as opposed to playing traditional music), should I only play dance music in barns or village dance halls? What about using a PA system?

Trying to play music traditionally opens a huge can of worms that doesn't exist if I define traditional music in a musical sense but don't worry about doing it in a traditional way.