Well perhaps its stating the bleeding obvious but the reason a lot of people were interested in folk music in those days was that acoustic music was getting in the charts. People were genuinely interested in the possibility of writing something or being in a room with people whose music reached out, rather than merely reaching back.

In short as an art form, it was alive. alive with possibilities. If you choose to write songs about the first world war, being betrayed by a sailor laddy, the fun of dancing jigs and hornpipes - interesting those by roads are - you will not be troubled by a mass audience. You have marked your territory out as surely as Basil Fawlty's gourmet night - no riff raff!