Market Rasen is a fairly unusual folk club. there may be a few others with such catholic tastes, but you won't find enough of them with enough fresh audiences to keep the creative juices flowing. also its an expensive business, and you need really (if you are actively working and giving it your all) to be making some money out of it to pay expenses. Sure Woody Guthrie did it with a crap guitar and a rudimentary technique, but its not compulsory to do it his way.

I think if you are any kind of artist - there is some sort of compulsion to communicate - even if its buried deep. Otherwise what you have is a neurosis rather than an artform.

don't worry about validity. its not the civil service. nobody is going to promote you to a grade 3 executive officer folk singer.

and look at the crap that is considered valid.