Barry explained it well. Finn & Haddie and Ryan Thompson were IT for local NH talent. I can't call Jeff Warner a local act - it's a bit like saying Lou Killen is a local Michigan performer. This first-ever Portsmouth Maritime Festival is a bad example of what you were trying to show.

It's "Hallowell and McIntire." I'll go out on a limb here, and say that they got booked because they first made themselves known to whoever booked them. Maybe they talked to them a bit, maybe they showed up at a few singing sessions, maybe they handed someome a tape. The thing is, talent doesn't get "pulled in," it gets pushed.

We honestly don't have that many events/venues here. There are open mics, but I think paying gigs are a lot rarer these days.

I'd have to ask which venues turned down the performers you were talking to. Then I'd wonder why. There could be a whole load of reasons. If it turns out that the performers are talented, contacted NH venues that featured music of the type they do that were in need of acts, presented some example of their music (tape/open mic performance/audition) and were still refused, only then would I go for the conspiracy theory.

I'm willing to believe in a remote possibility there's some anti-Maine feelings, but I haven't seen any evidence - I haven't heard anyone saying anything nasty, and I don't know anyone who would avoid listening to someone simply because they're from Maine. What I can tell you is that other than Gordon Bok and Kendall, I can't really name folk musicians from Maine. Perhaps the people who book musicians aren't much less ignorant than myself.