I would occasionally cup my ear when playing the harmonica, the better to hear myself in a loud environment. Someone once said to me "Who the bloody 'ell do you think you are, Ewan MacColl?"

What do MacColl's politics have to do with the "definition" of folk music? If an unconnected area of his life colours your view on his attitude to music, just consider that Wagner was a rabid antisemite, that Britten was inordinately fond of young boys, that Richard Strauss and Furtwangler conducted concerts in wartime Germany in support of Hitler, that Beethoven rarely emptied his pot de nuit to the disgust of his visitors, that Herbert Von Karajan was cheerfully a member of the Nazi party, that Mozart was obsessed with making jokes about poo and bottoms and that Schubert loved prostitutes and he didn't really care how young they were (it killed him in the end). Hope I haven't spoiled anyone's enjoyment of their music...