Thanks, Cool Beans! You beat me to posting that link. Stone Soup hosts a variety of sub-genres of folk music. Willie-O, if your friends prefer Celtic music, a lot of that can be heard at the Blackstone River Theatre in Cumberland, http://www.riverfolk.org/ . If you like Irish sessions, you can find those at Patrick's Pub on Smith Street in Providence, http://www.patrickspubri.com/events.html .There is also live folk music at the Brown University Bookstore on some Friday nights. In Portsmouth, RI, there are concerts at Common Fence, http://www.commonfencemusic.org/index.html . Not too far away in Fall River, MA, is The Narrows Center for the Arts, http://www.ncfta.org/index.php . In the warmer months, festivals include the Mystic, CT, Sea Music Festival; the Blackstone Valley Celtic Festival in Cumberland; SummerFest and the Working Waterfront Festival in New Bedford, MA; Pawtucket's Labor and Ethnic Heritage Festival and Stone Soup Folk Festival; and of course the Newport Folk Festival.

There are two wonderful resources to find out what is going on. One is WRIU, 90.3 FM which has folk music every weeknight from 6-9. Each DJ specializes in a different sub-genre of folk music, but all read an all-inclusive folk concert calendar at about 7:30 during their programs. The other is Motif Magazine which features a list about almost all arts events in the area. You can pick one up for free in lots of places, or you can read it online at http://motifmagazine.net/ .

Whew! I don't think I've ever posted so many blue clickies in a comment! I hope they all work.