Although not a consumer of contemporary broadcast media - I do like a nice narrowcast bit o' youtube mind - I turned on the car radio this afternoon being early for an appointment, blew the spiders out and heard Stuart McConey and others talking about musical nomenclature, genres, styles and whatnot.

The conclusion seemed to be that titles were fairly meaningless and music can only be spoken of in terms of comparison or metaphor. They may be onto something. If Ewan MacColl writes a song extolling the virtues of his wife is he a folk singer? When Jon Boden, a chap who knows a fair bit about the tradition and how to play it, makes a record of his own songs has he ceased to be a folkie?
At various times each of us answers to different titles (angler, lecturer, banjo player and grandiose crank at various times apparently) but 'folk musician' seems stickier than most, as though it is a life commitment, a calling, a vocation and those who push its boundaries and muck about with other forms are somehow suspect, letting the side down.

Perhaps folkies are happy with intertextual playfulness, absorbing the zeitgeist and chillin' but it doesn't often appear that way.