Whereabouts were you in the '70s, Al - just out of curiosity?

I was in London until 1975 and the prevailing style in many of the "folk" venues at that time was stuff in the manner of Davy Graham, Renbourn, Jansch, McTell, Mike Chapman, etc., plus the Bristol-based blues contingent. The Cousins was still doing its typical thing, and I recall getting any number of gigs solo and a regular residency in Bayswater with a jug band in those years.

When I came down to Sussex in 1976, I fell into the Dark Side and started playing jazz with the guys in Brighton - but there was still a good, contemporary scene there as well, in venues like the Marlborough, the (former) Springfield, the pub now called Circus Circus at Preston Circus - and they co-existed alongside more traditional clubs in places like Lewes. I used to drop in the Brighton venues for a bit of blues and ragtime picking now and then, and then nip into the jazz pubs for a sit-in on rhythm guitar.

But perhaps London and Brighton were more cosmopolitan in those days than other areas. What I've never done is the singer-songwriter/contemporary self-penned stuff - I always left it to others of that persuasion.