OK NFA, we are complete musical tarts.......we (Blind Summat!)play a mixture of trad (English/ Scottish/Irish/American), contemporary and quite a few self penned (mainly but not exclusivly) "folky styled" and a few unexpected things. Some of the set is quite "American" sounding (Old Timey, some bluegrassy and a few covers from excellent song writers like Townes Van Zandt etc).

The other half (Wendy Arrowsmith)solo tends more towards the Scottish/ English trad with a few of her own traddy sounding songs.

We (and Wendy Solo)play in a whole mixture of places. Wendy gets a lot of Folk Club gigs, the band is starting to get some of these as well....and we seem to be made very welcome at some of the local small & medium sized "folk" festivals.

We also play pubs (probably my personal favourite gigs), "acoustic" nights, old folks homes, Women's Institute parties (which suit us very well as they tend to be local and not too long which makes getting a baby sitter easier, well paid, they buy LOTS of CDs and the cakes are excellent!), birthday parties.... well anything really.

Wendy is playing to the Christmas shoppers in Middlesbrough next Thursday afternoon as an example.

I think our experience is that you can get away with "proper folk" (we do a version of The Cruel Mother on Congas, fiddle and DADGAD guitar for instance) as long it is part of a mixed set where people recognise some of the songs and tunes. Entertainment and competence are the key factors to engaging the public, not style..... and not taking yourself too seriously.

There is nothing quite as satisfying as playing to an initially disinterested (or hostile, see "What kind of Folk Club" thread)pub crowd, getting them on side and ending up having a really good night. Secret weapons for this include things like female solo unaccompanied singing (often trad.... "Recuited Collier" works well as does "She Moves Through The Fair" {I know it's not trad!}), which can quieten the noisiest venue or something really upbeat and familiar e.g.Irish Rover or a set of upbeat Old Timey tunes which gets peoples toes tapping.

BTW, we really enjoy Folk Club gigs as well.....it is a different challenge though.

NFA....is this the sort of thing you wanted?

Cheers

Paul