Spleenster:

I think that amongst the permitted faux-traditional songsmithery, there's an awful lot of maudlin codswallop and cringe-making fakery. I also think that when you have a traditional-music night, there is as little chance of quality control as there is at an anything-goes night

Agreed with the first part. I used to do a temperance song (Father Dear Father Come Home). I did it for laughs, but actually it's not a million miles away from the heart-on-sleeve sentimentality (even, dare I say it, right-on heart-on-sleeve sentimentality) of a lot of contemporary folkie songwriting. Not wanting to be preached at or have my heartstrings plucked kept me out of folk clubs for years. Imagine my surprise when I discovered Sheath and Knife, Two Pretty Boys, The Cruel Ship's Carpenter, Little Musgrave, On Board a 98, One Night As I Lay On My Bed, The Trees They Do Grow High, Sweet Lemady and so on and on and on - nothing preachy or sentimental about that lot.

Anyway, it seems that both sentimentality and right-onnery were abroad in the land when the Revival was raging, and new songs in traditional forms aren't immune. All in all you probably do hear more of it, and less laid-back irony & flippancy, in a more trad-oriented session.

Quality control, though, is always higher in trad sessions in my experience; I think in the mindset of a lot of performers "anything goes" really means "anything".