The big problem with allowing for *some* modern folk-like music (be it Ewan MaCcoll or that bit of Pentangle I posted) and not others, is who gets to be the arbiter of what counts as 'folk like'?

Surely that has to be a *democratic* decision based on what most people tend to think of, create, purchase or participate in, in the name of 'folk'?

Billy Bragg for example works as contemporary 'folk' for me, but (as the phrase goes) your mileage my vary. As indeed may anyone elses. An entire generation may think Vashti Bunyan is as folk as you like! So who will appoint themselves as the official weigher and measurer of 'sufficient folkish quotient' to provide someone's music with an 'it's folk-like enough' stamp of approval, before it may be legitimately enjoyed by people at large who consider themselves folk enthusiasts?