I am so pleased that Susan started this thread. It illustrates the difference in attitude between the professional folksinger and the dedicated hobbyist. Folksinging is a job, a service if you will. There are scads of venues where a folksinger can find employment. I have been gainfully employed in the field for over forty years and I am not the only one in the Philadelphia area who can make that claim. Let me offer a few suggestions for markets. Teaching is a great steady income. I teach folk instruments at my home, two days a week, and I earn enough in those two days to cover my living expenses. If you would like to get students, you might start, as I did, at a music store. When you have a reputation and a following, you can establish your own schedule. My guitar, mandolin and banjo students are very understanding about my playing out, but the teaching income (and my sense of responsibility toward my students) is such that I avoid jobs on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Senior facilities, retirement homes, travel clubs and the like are steady but dont pay enough to justify the amount of time it would take to do my own booking. Fortunately, there are agents who specialize in seniors jobs and I get calls at least once or twice a week for jobs in the $85 to $150 range, which I can do because I am available on those five days I'm not teaching. Ethnic markets are rich sources of work. I offer a program of Jewish songs which I perform at a myriad a Jewish men's clubs, sisterhoods, Hebrew schools, apartment associations, camps and lots more. (There are agents who work in this very specialized market.) I, have an Irish program that is very popular in March and I have a program of patriotic music that my agents sell in July. I do a lot of strolling in the spring and summer (civic events, town fairs, shopping malls). I do Christmas parties, commercial and private. I know all the verses. I have a number of friends who have developed their own markets as folk performers, mostly in the field of children's music. (The pre-school scene is a goldmine just waiting to be tapped). Well, I'm getting a little tired. I'll be more specific if anyone has questions.

Mike Miller