Richard Dyer Bennet made a distinction between 'Folk Singer' and 'Minstrel'. A folk singer took the songs of his specific social group and sang them because he liked them. Someone who took songs from a different culture or social group and resurrected them, which is what he did, was a 'Minstrel'.

So, is the spotty yoof who strums the wrong chords to Wonderwall at the open mike really a folk singer after all?