What an extraordinary analysis of the thread! And typically myopic if I may say so JC. Orwellian? Newspeak? Challenge? Who are these barbarians at the gate of folk's civilisation?

Three things - traditional music, played exclusively almost nowhere (why one asks, and why dilute it with stuff traditionalists find incompatible with 1954?), second, the thing called folk which gets its own shows and festivals and thirdly what seems to happen in some clubs; the operetta, bawd, punk rock standard, 60s pop melancholia, sublimely talent free anarchy and free for all.

Number two has become 'folk' by any rational standards, one remains 'the tradition' - apparently too esoteric to support its own repertoire unaided - and three is presumably your 'navel-gazing mumblers', though in fairness I should point out some of my kosher '54 experiences involved ballardeers who were complete strangers to the notion of public performance.

That's yer contemporary folk scene mate!