SS:

Just so I understand: you agree with the "folk process", it's the specifics of the 1954 definition you disagree with? As someone else has mentioned, this is starting to turn into a legalistic argument over small details, and I'm not interested in taking it any further. In any case, it's not your views on traditional music which bother me so much as your enthusiasm for bringing every other kind of music under the sun under the "folk" umbrella.

I don't disagree that you can hear all sorts of music in folk clubs, although in my experience not usually to the degree your postings suggest (and I note that a visitor to the same club suggests that you may have given an exaggerated impression of the amount of "other" music heard even there). It is your need to classify it all as "folk" which I am struggling with. Most people seem to be able to hold in their heads the idea that you might sometimes hear in a folk club music which is not "folk". It is not necessary to redefine the music in order to smuggle it through the door.

"Seeds of Love": my copy of Peter Kennedy's "Folksongs of Britain and Ireland" lists three versions Kennedy collected himself (from George Maynard, Bill Squires and Gabriel Figg) and over 30 printed versions from all around the British Isles, many of which include several variants. Sharp alone had at least 27 variants.