Seems that what Davey Graham and co were doing is cross-pollenating folk with blues, jazz and "world" music. Others have done the same over time (think Paul Simon as a prominent example). But in order to do this, you have to have a _really_ good understanding of your area so you can work out what to add. You can't innovate until you're already up to speed with that field.

Folk roots indeed. If you just add willy-nilly, you may by random process end up with something good - but more likely you'll end up with garbage. Your representative 15-year-old is doing himself a favour by catching up on the hundreds of years of back-history and 80 years of recordings covering his chosen musical field. Everyone starts playing other ppl's music (be it Oasis, the Beatles, Woody Guthrie or Turlough o'Carolan) and only when they've got it straight in their heads will they write their own stuff. Even Ian Anderson...

A quote from Tom Paxton's autobiography-cum-songbook, as near as I remember: "This new guy appeared on the scene called Bob Dylan. No-one knew much about him, but he knew more Woody Guthrie songs than anyone else." In 1960, Dylan sure as hell wasn't innovating, but 15 years later, would anyone have claimed he wasn't a real boot up the ass of the folk scene? So Paxton and Dylan (and god knows how many others back then) listened to every recording they could find of other earlier folk musicians (Woody Guthrie, Burl Ives, Leadbelly, etc), learnt those songs and used them as the basis for their musical direction. Think on't, lad...

Graham.