I don't think I am "claiming" anything here.

The first song book I started learning songs from back in the early 1950s was a 35¢ drugstore paperback (Bantam Books) entitled "A Treasury of Folk Songs" compiled by John and Sylvia Kolb. The authors annotated each song. Genuine, traditional folk songs. Then, John and Alan Lomax's "Best Loved American Folk Songs." I think those two guys knew what they were talking about. Then on into collections by Cecil Sharp, Ralph Vaughan Williams....

And many songs from recordings by singers who annotated the songs they sang. Burl Ives, Richard Dyer-Bennet, Ed McCurdy, many others.

With each song I learned, I wanted to know as much as possible about its history, if it was connected with an actual historical event, and all that.

As I said, I do sing some songs that are "folkish," (e.g., "Copper Kettle," which was written by Ed Beddoe), but I don't claim they are folk songs. In my brief verbal "program notes" I give a bit of information about each song (being careful not to turn a concert into a lecture).

But the "folk song I just wrote on the bus this afternoon" is NOT a folk song. It may become one in time eventually, but only time and usage by others will tell.

Sorry! But that's just the way things work.

Don Firth