Enjoyable walk along the river north of York then the major and slightly painful task of shaving my beard off now complete

I'll now state what my interpretation of 'folk' is in the context of this thread. Jim keeps asking people to define it as they see it. I'm sure I have stated something along the lines of this somewhere before. I definitely don't want this to turn into a what is folk thread!

I consider folk to be music and song generally (but certainly not always) made by people using acoustic instruments (or their voice alone).The songs tend to be story songs or songs of protest, both from 'traditional' sources or composed. I find it harder to define the music alone other than knowing it when I hear it! I won't even try to describe folk dance but again I know what it is when I see it.

I know this is a broader definition than some would accept but it is what I have understood as folk for 43 years now and it is not going to change no matter what anyone tries to tell me

An important point too is that words change their meanings, or mean different things to different people. I am an orchestral music enthusiast so I know that 'classical' music is music from a specific time period (Mozart & Haydn are two of its main composers). However if I was discussing music with someone I would tend initially to say I like classical music - even though in reality it is the type of music I like the least (I can't abide Mozart's music with a few exceptions!). I prefer romantic, post romantic, neo classical, modernist, socialist realist, and minimalist music but everyone understands the term 'classical'.

In the same way I say I like folk music without going into detail on what type of folk music I like - traditional, contemporary, alt - folk, nu-folk, folk rock, folk electronica. I see no problem at all in describing all these music sub genres under the broad genre of folk. 'Classical' music hasn't suffered from being an inclusive term so I don't see why folk should.

Anyway back to the current state of the folk scene - in the broad meaning I set out above........