Ah, just to clear up interpretations; I originally asked for what it means to you, rather than what you think it should be. Hope that was clear (!)

Some good replies and my point is; if that is what your "folk" is to you, then beauty being in the eye of the beholder and all that, what you call your folk is indeed folk. However, that's another debate...

Whether it be the company and creic, the musical styles, the collecting and perpetuating how peoples' thought processes have developed over the last few hundred years or indeed the easy route to performing in from of others, it is all folk and just about every aspect came out as ways how we relate to it.

Even so, some people do get a little precious about their folk and perhaps like folk to mean just their take on it. One post above said the folk wing of the music industry should use a different word. Perhaps I agree, but only in that the music industry has to make money by selling to a wide market, and your wish, however strange, has to a degree been granted. Roots and world are genre used in order to sell folk without connotations of weird hippies, as the press tend to badge people with such an interest. (I don't know which jars most, the weird beard with a fried brain or the librarian with socks and sandals. Neither match my experience, and Morris dancers provide their own lampooning...)

So, whatever it is, it appears to be folk after all! So, that's alright then........