Keith:>>>>>>>What is your mates understanding of the "wider world meaning ? What's the consensus, where are the boundaries, if there are non then we're talking about music, undefined.<<<<<<<

Not as simple as that, Keith. This has been debated ad nauseam on numerous threads, the meaning of folk music/folk song etc. I don't really want to spend time going over the same old ground over and over again. Pick any genre you like and it will have overlaps with numerous other genres. The same is with 'folk' no matter which usage you choose. Even 54 is just a list of descriptors and any given version of a song may have some of these descriptors but not necessarily all.

There are probably as many usages of the word as there are with many other words. The widest usage is the one used by the man in the street and the Music Industry, from Bob Dylan to Mumfords to any pop singer who sings solo with a guitar. Look at the 'folk' section in a music shop. You can give your opinion and say their wrong but we live in a democracy (of sorts).

Another usage is also quite amorphous, and that is that by those people who go to folk festivals, sessions, attend folk clubs, and the vast majority of these would include recently written songs in the 'folk style' but not pop singers such as 'Chas & Dave'. This would be the usage of my mates all of whom have been singing folk songs since the 60s.

Does that explain things a bit better? I also have problems expressing myself.