"Please let different folks' concepts of what folk music is lie peacably alongside each other."
Only if it makes sense and doesn't distort and confuse, surely
If we are going to discuss something we leed a consensus to communicate with each other ; that goes, not just for music, but right across the board
If you call anything you wish 'folk' then the term becomes meaningless- which from recent discussion, it has
If you decide to involve yourself in and art form (that's what folk music is) then you take on the responsibility of preserving the integrity of that form otherwise you will damage its identity
In my opionion, folk song, in particular is an extremely important art for because it has been created, sustained and passed on by a people who are largely regarded as artless - that's why it has always been referred to as 'the voice of the people'
Even Child referred to his gatherings as 'popular ballads' - the ballads of the people
Once you move away from that highly documented and long accepted identity and submerge it in the music you personally want to perform and listen to you lose the real thing.
I sing what I want when the mood takes me - - if I sing at a venue that styles itself 'folk' I sing folk songs
The problem with what appears to have happened to the English folk scene is that they have no perceivable identy any more - they once had - no longer
That doesn't mean you can't stretch the barriers, but you need to remember those barriers exist if you do
I have always wanted to see new songs made using folk forms - it's the only way we will ever create a new tradition, if that's possible
People turned away from the scene in their thousands because the sound they were being given was no longer what they had come to expect
I went to as many folk clubs as I could manage - I wouldn't go anywhere near avenues that are being suggested in the course of these discussions
If you don't like folk song proper or don't think it important enough to prserve, you need to say so, but please don't ignore the damage that is being done to it
Jim