Richard,

You wrote, "... you should be able to start a new thing instead of bewailing what there is." Please note I have been actively involved in the organizational end of folk music in the USA for many years. My activities have included serving on the board of directors and program committee of a large folk club, serving on the steering committee (board of directors) of a national organization, doing the booking and many other jobs for a coffee house style club that presents a weekly program, and producing an annual folk concert for a poetry club. I have also helped to produce several one-time events. All of this has been unpaid volunteer work.

Once again, the organization structure of our folk scene in the USA is very different than in the UK. I have been working through that structure for a long time, not casting darts from the outside. As one who has done a lot of the legwork (stuffing envelopes, pasting labels onto newsletters, designing and distributing flyers, answering mail, selling tickets, setting up sound equipment, counting the gate receipts, working the product sales tables, preparing food, fetching water, shuttling people to and from events, cleaning up after the audience has gone, etc.), I have seen first hand what goes on, for better or for worse.

--- Steve