SS, you say you are telling it "like it is". Assuming you're correct, the question is, why is it like that? Why is the meaning of "folk" apparently being extended ever more widely, to include music which is not traditional and has no resemblance to or affinity with traditional music?

Sometimes the reason is commercial. Big festivals understandably want to bring in as big an audience as possible. Folk is not mainstream taste, so some festivals want to target a broader audience by putting on acts which are closer to the mainstream. However, the closer they are to the mainstream, the less close they will be to folk.

In some cases, it is laziness, or perhaps timidity. Some club organisers are possibly reluctant to tell some would-be performers that their material isn't appropriate, or to establish a clear musical policy. In other cases, it is a deliberate choice to encourage as wide a range of music as possible, and to accept whatever people want to play.

Why does it matter? Because the wider the range of music described as "folk", the greater the pressure on what might be termed "core" folk music. This has been under pressure from popular culture for at least the last century, and probably longer. For example, for years Walter Pardon was hardly ever able to sing his folk songs in public, because his audience wanted to hear modern popular songs. Those songs could have been lost, it was only his discovery by the folk revival which enabled him to bring them out again.

If I am "pedantic" (which anyway I dispute) it is because I value folk music and I want it to retain its integrity, not see it eroded away by laziness or ignorance, or worse, deliberate misuse of the term by those such as yourself who appear to want to extend it to cover anything. What is described in the quote in Jim Carroll's post of 15 Apr 09 - 08:17 AM may indeed be a good night out, I'm not questioning that, but to describe that melange as a "folk club" is just to dilute the real meaning. Worse, it is gravely damaging to the future of what should properly be termed "folk".