"...we who hold to the older venerated views about this music and what it encompasses, must, seemingly, tolerate the presence of the myriads of way off-the-mark s/s troops in our midst..."

I'm sorry if I offend you, Art, but this statement encapsulates for me everything wrong with the folk scene. Music has to develop and change - much like a language - in order to be a living tradition. If you despise musicians and their music - be they s/s or musicians taking a modern slant to old traditions - because "it ain't how it were done in MY day," you are condemning folk music to a slow and dull death.