You'd do well to have a listen to Art Thieme, Jerry Rasmussen, Rick Fielding--to name a few. They show different sides of 'folk' as the mixed bag has come to be called. And you could speak with Art and Jerry via the Mudcat site. Open Mike is a singer herself, and she's interviewed a gang of people from the music scene. As someone said 'upthread', you're standin' in it.