That you can't haul your piano out to a pub for a session, doesn't mean it wasn't used in sessions that HAD a piano in the place the music happened. Quite a bit of where folk/trad meets "classical" would be at a keyboard. - and piano or harpsichord would certainly have been part of the passing on of English Country Dance tunes for a couple centuries now. It's older than concertinas or autoharps, which most folks don't think about twice as being "folk instruments."

Betty's inclusion of Contra Dance music hits home here - piano has been a part of it for as long as folks have been dancing contra in northern Ohio. It's a rare contra dance band that does without.

A good piano player is as welcome in my folk world as a good fiddler, guitarist, etc... which includes knowing when to play and when it's not appropriate.

Joanne in Cleveland