really dated and uncomfortable

I think that's the definition of Folk to many people, CS. My god! Anachronism is the very essence of traditional. In this sense alanabit is bang on the nail and I can't for the life of me understand the savaging he's got here. Honest advice? I think we need to read between the lines here. What he's asking for is the support of the community to give him the faith and courage he needs to enrich his experience of his craft as a performer. There are, God Knoweth, more constructive ways of doing that!

That said, Folk Club audiences are the worst sort. You're playing to a mob rather than individuals; they booked you to win them over on their terms. This means selling your soul to the lowest possible common denominator to a bunch of maladjusted braying wannabe egoists all of whom resent you for being up there playing instead of them. I think we're seeing a lot of that mentality here. These guys are out for blood!

Any artist should be protected from this abuse. The audience is there to win the artist over, not the other way round.