Just two quick points. Firstly, what is the "source" of folk music. I suspect that goes back far, far further than the so-called source singers who were collected and recorded. They are not the source, merely the well-head. In fact we could, if we wished, go back to the source of music itself if we wanted to perpetuate the dogma, and side with David Toop when he says, "The unverifiable origins of music are located by most musicologists either in bioacoustic and meteroelogical sounds or language...".

Secondly I think we need to differentiate between a folk revival and a folk renaissance. The first is the collection, preservation and performance of traditional songs and music from a former time; the second builds on the first but produces new, exciting, contemporary and relevant material and interpretations that spring from the creativity of those who are creating and performing it today.