I'm posting this to this thread because it's the latest of the myriad of "what is folk" threads. I haven't read through all of this one so perhaps if it has become contentious, this might bring them back on track.

While watching the online video of the PBS documentary Give Me the Banjo, I heard a wonderful quote by Mike Seeger:

"This music exists to entertain a few friends and not for performance and it can happen anywhere, any time and I think it's wonderful for that reason."

kat