'If you don't just want the term as a convenient hat-peg to hang your music on, why in god's name do you want your music identified with something that doesn't ring your bells

Now you're making a sweeping assumption there Jim, actually what you call 'folk' very definitely rings all my bells!

'Most of the population wouldn't call it anything because they've never come into contact with it.

Ok, lets say most of the population that DO come into contact with it, because that is most definitely the case from the evidence I see in England. You've had several people on this thread tell you that, not just me.

By the way, there is an interesting post on my thread about Folk/rock from a chap called Mark Clark from across the pond.