Exactly guest. just cos somebody bores you -its no reason to write off a club. stick with it!

For me the writers of songs are the best thing to come out of the folk revival. And the famous ones you mention are okay - but the best ones never made it past the great years of pestilence and plague when professional folksingers were either traddies or comedians. A cursed time in our history.

Traditional material is okay, but you hear it; then you hear it with somebody using a funny guitar tuning and a funny voice, then someone with just the funny voice....after abit you get to appreciate the ones who forget the words - you're never quite sure which bit they're going to forget, and that adds a certain variety.

Whereas when someone writes a new song, well that's a new creation. It may be crap, but at least its new.

I write and play trad material at home for fun, and to keep my playing technique together, but I just can't imagine anyone being entertained by it.