I do a wide variety of stuff, from finger-in-the-ear traddy, right through to Beatles 'classics' ('Blackbird' is an oft-requested favourite). I reckon folk music is what people want to hear, defined by whether you still have an audience when you've finished...

The standard of performance can never be separated from the appeal of a song - even a truly great song loses its edge when performed badly...

I've been a 'folkie' since the late 1960's, so I've seen lots come and go. What always stays stable is the 'singability' - can the audience join in?

Having said that, it's important to keep one's repertoire fresh. If someone 'doesn't like it because they don't know it', I gently (with the aid of a lump hammer) point out that every song they know started as one they'd never heard before!!