To return to stewart's original question, and address some of the other insightful comments upthread, the "folk music audience" here in Seattle is fragmented. There are separate audiences and communities that pay attention to old-time stringbands, fiddle music, singer-songwriters, traditional singers, blues, bluegrass and several varieties of ethnic and "world music." Each of these groups has their own concerts, parties, dances and so forth, but there's practically no overlap.

Even at the annual Folklife Festival where all those communities participate, each community and style has its own turf.

Almost all of these communities are relatively tiny, and only a few local "folk" performers can reliably fill a 400-seat concert venue: Jim Page, Baby Gramps, Riley & Maloney are about it. But neither Jim, Gramps, nor Ginny and David are specifically drawing the folkies, even though they all have their roots in traditions. Some of the touring nostalgia acts can attract big audiences, but those audiences are not the ones who come to hear either the Folklore Society's singer/songwriters or Stewart's traditional acts.