The live folk club circuit consists of audiences aged 50+, who just want to hear the same boring, cliche-ridden, derivative take on "folk music" that they have been going to clubs and listening to for years.

Don't moan about this on Mudcat - get out there and do it the way you want it to be. I've been organising a weekly club that books old, young and middle-aged performers for 45 years now. Within the last year we have been able to welcome school-aged floor singers & musicians and they have delighted our mixed aged audience. I put hours each week into websites, producing and distributing posters, posting our forthcoming gigs on all the folkie forums and on MySpace and Facebook. As a result our establishment has a healthy four-figure bank balance so that sometimes we can afford to take a chance on talented young performers even although we reckon that we will probably lose money on them.

Chillybean, there is an element of truth in your complaints and I sometimes go to other folk clubs and think, 'What the hell am I doing here?' - but I must say that your post shows a negativity of thinking that cannot possibly do you any good. As I said in my first post in this thread, "I'm afraid that nobody owes you a living."