"You don't recognise the picture of the folk revival I painted?"

I don't spend enough time there to know, to be honest. I recognise some of what you're saying in the self portrait of the folk world painted by some contributors to Mudcat, but I dunno about in the field. I've been to some fairly crap folk clubs in the past, but these days most of my engagement with the music is either via CD or via my local sinaground, neither of which fit the bill of fare you describe. Although I wouldn't ever describe myself as a "folkie", the folkies I know in real life seem to be a nice enough bunch on the whole. I get the feeling most of 'em don't give a stuff about the sort of things that get talked about here. Rather, they just like singing the songs.