nobody went around with a rule book - they didn't have to - they sounded as they sounded and we took to them in thousands

Indeed, Jim. I think you have just summed up my point about what a "folk audience" takes to. Most people do not know the background of a song unless they have heard it on the TV or radio. When they go to a folk club and hear a song that sounds like a folk song to them, as far as they are concerned, it is a folk song. Whether it was handed down from horny hand to horny hand or whether it was written by an accountant last week does not concern them.