"Folk music has become middle class !"
Think you need to define 'middle class' John
When I came in I was still an apprentice on the Liverpool docks with a Secondary Modern education - my dad was a navvie
My fellow folkies were overwhelmingly milkmen, factory workers, building workers, factory workers.... not even that many students in those days
That has changed, but I link there are enough 'educated working class' people around for the revival to still claim working class roots
Tom Munnelly was the greatest collector I ever knew - he began working life operating a knitting machine
MacColl was a self-educated worker whose father claimed the honour of being the only worker ever to be deported FROM Australia for Trades Union activities
Bert worked his passage to Australia and worked as a sheep shearer
I don't really regard these people as 'middle class' - they all had to earn a living rather than live on invested wealth and use the labour of others rather than create their own
Peggy always admitted to being middle class, though her and her families association with working people made them different than the run-of-the-mill MC
Jim