>I like old blues and stuff with cool voices and sick
>guitar-playing but Seeger, Guthrie as well as Dylan, Baez and
>that whole strand is not my thing at all and outside of Neil
>Young and a few others, I don't like rock that follows that
>template either.

As much as I love Pete, he did set the template for the kumbayah ideal.

> Of course, I LOVE¤ the Byrds and their
>followers but it's a different thing I think even if they had
>strong folk-roots.

I've got the Criterion DVD of Monterey Pop and one of the funniest comments in the liners is the author calling it 'the largest aggregation of ex-folksingers in history.' But of course you can't call any of what was staged there real 'folk' (with the possible exception of S&G).

>It's the same reason I can never truly get
>into most country(bluegrass is obviously different); it's too
>much emphasis on lyrics and top-line melody for my tastes; the
>"backing" is not very happening to my ears.

alright

>I feel the same way about swedish folk:the Bellman tradition
>(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Michael_Bellman)

learn something new every day!

>balladeers who sit down and strum a lute and sing stories
>bores the shit out of me while I really dig the
>chord-progressions, melodies etc. in the instrumental stuff
>made for long walks, funerals, dances etc. even if I must
>confess that I prefer them in a jazz- or rock-context.

Again, not surprising.

>BTW, the thing about relating, I can not "relate" to at all;

>Anyway, that aspect of AFKAP's post is truly alien to my
>sensibilities

I'm of two minds about it. I think if a song can have some degree of universality, it helps; but it's not necessary. As far as ballads go, I like the song to tell a good story too - though not everyone is gong to really enjoy stuff like a sailor volunteering to sink an enemy ship by hand in exchange for the captain's daughter, then being betrayed by his own captain and left to sink in the lonesome sea.

>but I agree about the lack of "sexiness" (or
>edge or whatever)-it's just not a very appealing
>subculture...

I dunno guys, go to a folk festival or something. HIPPY CHICKS!