Peterr: "Two quotes, 1: Carthy's 'The only harm you can do to a song is ignore it'.....it is not necessary to 'ignore' any song-only to apply a bit of taste & discretion about where it is sung. Does "Yellow Submarine" belong at a Bluegrass festival? There ARE distinctions to be made.

2: Anon 'I've never heard of a song that wrote itself' ...so? That statement is a close relative of "I ain't never heard a horse sing one"...it means nothing in relation to the debate about whether 'folk' and it's sub-categories need to be defined or protected.

Some people above who argue against rules and definitions are evading the issue....and they KNOW that there are types of music and venues that they like and seek out more than others. They draw lines just as folk like Art & I do...they just draw fuzzier lines in different places.