This thread is fascinating to read. I don't really have anything much to add about the Village or Berkeley or Cambridge, but I have a brief note about Hartford, CT c.1968. I was into rock & roll, but had one buddy at work who was a folkie --that strange type creature who didn't do drugs, ate health food, played a guitar, smoked lettuce cigarettes and went to coffeehouses where they served muffins and herb tea. He and his wife (who didn't shave her legs) took me to a coffeehouse on Main Street in Hartford.

A succession of young women performed up front, prefacing each song with a long, loving monologue about their Martin or Gibson guitar. I do remember one singing Leonard Cohen's "Suzanne." Most of the females in the audience were knitting in the dark.

After the coffeehouse, we went back to Bill's apartment where he played "Codeine" on his guitar and tried to show me how to do a few fingerpicking patterns.

None of this converted me to folkdom (yet), and granted, this was Hartford, not the epicenter of the scene like Greenwich Village. My only experience in GV was eating at some outdoor cafe and having a guy walk by and grab a piece of chicken off my plate and keep on walking! Sheesh. No wonder I turned to bluegrass...