Ron, there seems to be the view that folk as we once knew it is not relevant now.
There is an old time music crowd, a singer/songwriter crowd and a generalized
approach to music that encompasses popular music from earlier times.

The problem as I see it is that the practitioners of folk music today don't know too
much about it from a historical perspective. How the revival came out of the left-wing
movement and how the interest in traditional blues and old-time came from the Lib.
of Congress and Folkways records (Harry Smith). Most people today don't care about
traditional American material unless they are in a clique. There are small pockets of
people who are interested in the Appalachian folk. There are those who are into
Irish music and "chunes". These seem to be small enough so that it doesn't touch
the rest of the music listening public. There is no way of presenting this program
that informs people of what they are listening to. No one is taking the initiative to
present this music in a context that an audience could understand it. There is an
active "country dance" scene that has contra and square musicians. The "group" aspect
of the "Mighty Wind" folk pop revival has some hangers-on but mostly it's a dinosaur.
Except for an occasional PBS fundraiser.

It happened some time ago when folklorists and academicians turned their backs on
an audience by claiming some sort of high ground and not admitting a crossover
from the pop revivalists and the traditional informants. This was a HUGE mistake.
At one time Pete Seeger and Joan Baez could have been a catalyst for bringing more
traditional performers to the forefront. (DK Wilgus wouldn't allow Joan to play at
a UCLA folk festival in the Seventies. Not "trad" enough.)

Music entrepeneurs are more concerned with putting the butts in the seats at
concerts they can sell. "Folk" is out.

Solution: For singer/songwriters, o.t musicians, Irish etc. to do the homework and
explain to the public what "folk" is historically and how the various forms of music relate. To put folk music into context by embracing the various definitions and showing how they relate. To widen the scope of performance at festivals and bring in those who can
present these varied forms of material so that they make sense to an uninitiated public.

I live in an area that has been traditionally alive with folk music but there is no connect
between the interest patterns of the musical groups (some of whom are very good) here in the South.

American audiences have been divided just like our country.

Pete Seeger's concept of a "Hootenanny" was that all kinds of music be represented
with the goal of making the audience a part of the show through participation. Pete
said that it should include jazz musicians, all kinds of songwriters, traditional artists,
even classical artists (think Robeson) as long as what they were doing was in some
context of understanding. That kind of "Hootenanny" never really got off the ground.
Pete would have been the one to lead it but he had other things to do.

Frank Hamilton