My comment about Woody Guthrie was simply intended to illustrate the point that "folk singer", and by extension, "folk song", has long ceased to mean "traditional". I don't disagree that Woody was undoubtedly working in a folk tradition and in a folk idiom, and indeed some of his songs can now be considered traditional.

I'm not trying to reclaim the original meaning. I'm simply arguing for some recognisable boundaries to what we now call "folk", while accepting that these will inevitably be a bit blurred and subject to some individual interpretation at the margins.