Brendy, as always, talks a lot of sense.

Part of the problem, as I see it, is an internal one to the community...

What is a folk club?
What is a folk tradition?
What is a folk singer?
What is a folksong singer?
Are a folk singer and a folksong singer the same thing?
Does all of this comply with the 1954 definition?
Is AniDiFranco a folk singer or is she a folksong or is she neither or both?
Is the term (add genre or category here) just used for marketing purposes?
Can traditional and singer songwriter genres both be considered folk?
And the big one... What is folk?
And on and on (ad nauseam)...

All of this, and the stridency of the various protagonists, almost tempted me to abandon the Mudcat after more than eight years.

But I love my music (several genres) far too much for that and so do a lot of other people so I think folk clubs (whatever they are or will become) have a good future.

RS