You seem to be celebrating it in one breath while dismissing it as fantasy in the next.

The fantasy is that it only applies to Folk Music; all music is subject to this self-same process, just as all music can be defined according to the strictures of the 1954 Definition. The Tradition of English Speaking Folk Song was no less creative or dynamic than that of jazz or any other music, it differs only in terms of musicological genre, aesthetic and style. All music is a language; all languages are languages; all languages are different.

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I picked up a copy of Sheelagh Douglas's Last of the Tinsmiths - The Life of Willie MacPhee in York a few weeks back. It's up there on the bookshelves presently but I'm sure I'll enjoy it immensely when I get round to reading it.