Thanks a million Brian - far more articulate a summing up than my knee-jerk.
Mike,
Sorry a devils advocate prod with the pitchfork on my part - I know and like the illustration.
"Folk is born of social & cultural apartheid."
Folk is born of a human need for people to re-represent in poetic form (in the case of folk song) the things that move them rather than have somebody do the job for them.
Jim Carroll