I vote for "We are a BIGGGG Country" and the apellation 'folk' covers a heck of a lot of musical territory here also. Both comments have already been made above. Also, in most places, we don't have "folk clubs" that seem to equate to the Brit equivalent. Our population is much more dispersed. Geographically small New England and the populated Eastern Seaboard do seem to have definite folk communities, shanty sings, song circles at local pubs, etc. I live in a musically rich area of North Carolina, but we are still spread out relative to New England or larger urban areas. Here folk might mean old-time string music, bluegrass, jugband, mountain ballads, assorted blues genres, old C&W, gospel, spirituals, singer/songwriters, contra dance music, early jazz or fusions of all of the above. It is fairly easy to organize a jam session with lots of fiddle, guitar, banjo and mandolin. Not so easy to get a song circle together.

In my particular neck of the woods, there are plenty of performances, but not so much in the way of participatory events or gatherings.

Janie