The only two successful folkies I know are Adam Miller, John McCutcheon,
Pete Seeger,Elise Witt,Tom Paxton, Bill Staines and others who I don't know or about.

The above have made a full-time living at performing folk music across the country.
This has to be success.

I think that the sacrifice they make in doing this is the cost of forming contiguous personal
relationships, eating bad food, losing sleep and the pressure of getting from one gig to another.

I think it's possible to remain alive and fresh when you are onstage if you really love
what you are doing. It's offstage that present the problems.

I agree with Ruth Archer that talent and hard work won't work always. It takes a marketing skill but even more, the audience will tell the performer who is successful.

There are different ways of being successful, though, other than performing as a concert soloist. Writing, teaching,leading group singing, working with children on an educational level............................

I think that the real reward comes from studying your craft, musically, academically,
historically and in cross-disciplines. You can never know too much.