Anahata - you hit the nail on the head with your great point about marketing machines forcing the music down our throats.   

There is one promoter who represents a collective of singer-songwriters who constantly sends me recordings from artists that are very pop oriented and feature all sorts of rock settings for their songs. He is always writing me asking me why I won't play his artists on my radio show.   I always reply that my program is a folk music radio show called Traditions, and the artists that he represents do not come from the same tradition. I try to honor the traditional music and play artists that write songs who come from the same roots. I go to conferences for the Folk Alliance and hear so many musicians that I could never make a connection with what I've grown to know as folk music. They are merely looking for a break and feel that the avenues that promote folk music are there way to fame and fortune.   Most of these types are what I would call the "singer-songwhiner" variety.

As you say, traditional musicians are performing for the love of the music. They do not get the higher paid jobs.   Perhaps they need a better PR person. Then again, perhaps they are doing just fine as they are.