"In fact, I think of all Folk as a sort of séance; because it's certainly not real"

it's not more or less real than any other music or any other art

"it's invoked by a self-appointed cast of seasoned shamanic spirit-mediums (media?) who seek trance possession and holy communion in the singing of sacred canonical texts that only really have any meaning to the initiated."

There's so much that's wrong with that sentence, I barely know where to begin... Suffice to say that, straight off the top of my head, I can think of plenty of people and performances that wholly belie that generalisation. And I'm sure you could too if you felt like playing devil's advocate with yourself.

"it might appear to be real (i.e. collective, common, objective) but it only works because it is, in fact, entirely subjective"

Exactly the same can be said about pop music. You're in danger of suggesting that what's subjective doesn't count as "real". And actually, you're coming close to suggesting that dominant artistic forms such as chart pop (ie the forms that make the most money) are more vital and "real" than the ones on the margins. Simon Frith and Simon Cowell would doubtless agree.

I dunno about your "real" world, but it certainly sounds like a fantasy: trains don't go whizzing by, they have been privatised into an extortionately priced inefficient carve-up. And chart pop is a cynical racket sewn up by TV marketeers, which even the occasional good bit of hip-hop or cheesy disco can't rescue.

(And don't forget that pop music is merely music that's popular, nothing more, nothing less: it doesn't care about genre. Folk music is pop music if it happens to sell enough copies. The music of decades passed routinely top the contemporary album charts thanks to the infinitely re-recuperating wheel of new formats - I wouldn't be surprised if the Beatles were currently no.1 again. Folk music is pop music whenever an album happens to sell enough measly few copies/downloads to hit the top 10. )

I discover plenty of "reality" in folk song, and that reality is no less real and true than that of any other art form I might happen to interest myself in. I got into folk and blues because I was into hip-hop and punk.