One more post--just read some of the thread again and want to weigh in on why hymns are folk music. They share with folk tunes the modal melodies; beautiful, even, easy to sing. Also share, the good ones, melodies that are beautiful, easily remembered, and haunting.

Also, like folk songs, the best hymns have multiple levels: the obvious ones of devotion, but also often a kind of, for lack of better words, political or social component. In Gospel Ship or I'll Fly Away, it's the belief that, with enough spiritual power, one can be taken away [from injustice, heartache, the human condition, whatever one wants to read into it.] I write poetry and am often tempted to enter evocative lines from folk music in italics as a commentary on what else I'm writing...because so much of it works on so many different levels.

Well, must close for the night! This is my first visit to Mudcat and it's been fun.