Good thread. I've noticed in the twenty odd years that I've booked Margaret and myself, or Margaret, Kate, and myself is that things are changing in the folk world. Even a few years ago, we could get a contemporary venue to at least listen and consider us for their concert season. I would bend over backwards to let them know that we were used to presenting traditionally oriented music to people used to contemporary and having it go over. Now they are not so open, even in the house concert field. My significant other is a singer/songwriter and she runs into the opposite effect sometimes (she also has to deal with the fact that there are a lot more singer/songwriters these days). She's taken to becoming a unitarian circuit rider, incorporating music in the services she organizes and then seeing if the church will promote a community concert the night before. That works. Margaret and I sometimes have tried finding a venue and promoting the show ourselves. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. A friend of mine who is a booking agent claims that the folk world seems to be imploding right now. It sure seems that way at the Folk Alliance conferences. On the other hand, people who like what we do, like it alot and we can't really worry too much about the one's who don't.