the tradition is for friends to meet and make music. If you put the word "trad" in the title it will appear traditional. If you are snotty about singer-wrongciters and modern material they will drift away and your nights will have a truly traditional feel, and be a museum piece. If you accept modernity the proceedings will live. As Martin Carthy (fawn, fawn) said. You can do anything, anything at all to folk music, and it will live. Except ignore it!

The trad songs you sing are older than your memory, and could be far more recent than you realised, but in the traditional vein. Was Dylan trad, trad evolution, rip-off, or an originator? tick all of the above.

Chorus songs help BTW.