"quality about them which I find hard to define, "Hope for folk Music"
But you raised it in the context of "The hope for folk music" and described this lady as "embodying the ethos of folk Music"
You've described it - that's the problem
It bears on relationship to any previous form of folk musicAt least Doran is a caricature of what has replaced folk in the minds of some of the remaining few on the scene
Once you do that you have to justify your claim with examples
You don't need to "feel folk song when you here it" - it's impossible to put feelings into words
Folk has a soecific meaning related to a specific section of society - "traditional" describes the priocess by which the sons were made, remade, adapted and absorbed into the 'folk communities'
THere's nothing "rulish" or "stupid" in that - it's how we continue to communicate with each other (when we do)

I don't like what Gachan does with his sogs but I don't have too much trouble undersyanding the words
Your "sassenach" is showing miss
Jim