"So it is OK to sing songs that don't fit the 1954 definition in folk clubs?"
Who on earth ever claimed it wasn't?
Definitions are for discussion such as these and for documentation so we might make some sort of sense of what we do, write about and pass on.
As someone who likes to listen to folk song for pleasure, I want the right to choose the type of music I listen to; I what to know what clubs I am likely to hear it in, or what shelves I can find it in a record or bookshop.
If I make the effort to go to a club and come away without hearing anything that resembles a folk song in any shape or form, which happened often enough for me to stop going to strange clubs entirely, I feel I have been conned - it's sharp practice; it is no way to assist the music to survive.
Having argued with Al before on other subjects, it doesn't really surprise me that this isn't a consideration with him.
No musical form will survive if the punters turn up to find that they are being passed off with something else other than what they know to be their choice of music – transfer Al's attitude to jazz, classics, any pop music venue...... and see how much sense it makes.
Whatever the weaknesses and however much in need of repair, the existing definition brings with it some form of consensus – it is certainly worth more than the sneers and avoidance it gets som some quarters.
Anybody coming new to the music and deciding they want to know something about it can be pointed in a definite direction - the folk song and music is, by its very nature, if different,; it has a different history, its origins and utterances are unique, it's place in our culture has an importance of its own.
I came to folk via the clubs – The Spinners opened the doors into a rich varied and entertaining scene for me – from there I could go anywhere I liked without too much trouble.
If I wanted to listen to country and western I didn't even have to leave the building – I could go to the basement and hear Hank Walters.
I went to The Cavern to listen to the best of jazz (in those days).
They all brought with them their own uniqueness and identity – they all stood on their own two feet and said "this is me – this is what I am".
Folk clubs used to be part of that uniqueness, now only some of them are and you have to go out of your way to find which ones are and which ones have no idea what they are or what they are doing (Al certainly appears not to be able to explain his music other than to sneer at what others are doing.
A newby no longer stands a chance, which can't be good for the music as a whole; I can't see how it can do Al's music any good either if it has no identity of its own.
I'm sure you are fully aware of all this - what's your point Bryan?
Jim Carroll