I hesitate to follow a post from the great Jean Ritchie (respect, Ma'am!)but her quotes from Maud Karpeles and Alan Lomax suggest that even the great and the good occasionally say things which are, to say the least, debatable!

I think that it needs to be re-stated (for the umpteenth time) that this is NOT about dictating to people about what they can or cannot sing or questioning people's taste(s) in music or in labelling types of music 'good' or 'bad'. It is really about whether Folk Music is a limited, definable genre or not. Some of us say that it is and believe that the 1954 definition is a good guide to the limits. Others are insistent that it isn't (limited and definable) and further insist that music that they like is Folk Music. The 'music-that-I-like-is-Folk-Music' brigade then go on to insist that the people in the first group drop their opinions and agree with, and endorse, their views. Naturally we are reluctant to do so and are subsequently accused of all sorts of wickedness (of being 'folk policemen', 'folk fascists', 'ethnic cleansers, 'heretic hunters' etc., etc.). This doesn't seem to me to be a very adult way of conducting a debate and it's high time that the 'music-that-I-like' brigade took responsibility for their own views and stopped insisting that other people support them; it might also prove useful if they got into the habit of thinking things through a bit more thoroughly.