I fully appreciate your attitude on this, Don.
What ASCAP seems to be proclaiming is that any tradtional song falls into a gray area, due to the numerous copyrighted versions, and that they WILL win any lawsuit based on this, and on the fact that they have 1000 times the legal horsepower you can muster, unless you can find a pro bono banjo-playing attorney who will take your side based on principal alone and be prepared to grind out a protracted suit at great expense of time and money to himself.
That is why I believe the term extortion, severe as it sounds,may be applicable.