"And how "Roll Over Beethoven" came into this conversation I also can't imagine,"
I may be confusing you with our anonymous and insulting guest - if I have, I apologise, though I believe there are similarities in your attitude.
Every time a project like this one is announced it is greeted by hordes of singer/songwriters chanting "me-me-me"
In general, their output, whatever its merits, bears no relation whatsoever to to the material collected by Sharp or his colleagues and it occupies a different position on our cultural spectrum.
This intrusion has managed to nause up our club scene so that those of us wishing to listen and perform folk song have to tip-toe through a minefield before we attend an event bearing the label "folk".
Despite claims to the contrary, there is no general public understanding of the term - there centainly isn't a universally accepted consensus, hence our failure to catch their attention and win support for our music.
"21st century....." refers, for me, to how the music Sharp et al collected is continuing to be performed in the spirit of those who passed it on to him and his colleagues - not how Vaughan Williams, Delius, Rod Stewart... or any other experimentalist or borrower chooses to use it.
Opening such projects up in this direction makes the exercise futile and, as far as those not involved are concerned, even more confusing than it already is.
If this is not what you are arguing I have misjudged what you are saying and again, I apologise.
Jim Carroll