jimmyt

I cut my teeth on the folk era stuff you mentioned. Actually learned to play guitar from all of those old Kingston Trio albums on Capitol records. I have lived in a large city (chicago) where there has always been a thriving folk community, pubs, concert venues, coffe houses, etc. and the home of one of the longest running folk music based organizations, The Old Town School. I do recognize that many other communities, even large cities do not have these resources.

I also recognize that the English pubs mentioned are a big part of their community.

However, if you are going to play a show, it is the artist's/entertainer's job to win over the semi attentive or non attentive audience. True, there can be problems with a room such as a bad PA or no PA at all. If this is the case, you still have to shut-up and play and do what ever it takes to own the audience.

There used to be an expression called "working a room." the real pros know how to do this.