"I personally love the eclectic mix of offerings you get at amateur 'folk' circles (Blues, Beatles, and whatnot)."
Can't say I agree with you CS - whether I am attracted to any of SO'P's shopping list or not.
I saw the clubs empty, not particularly gradually, in the 1980s because it became possile to go home from a folk club without hearing a folk song - I would guess we lost something like two thirds of the audiences - including me.
It is not just a question of definition, rather it is whether I, as a potential punter, have the right to choose what I listen to.
I always wonder how an audience who turned up for a concert of chamber music would react if they were given a selection of rap, heavy metal, jazz - whatever, yet it is apparently acceptible for folk audiences.
Many of the clubs I visited in the 80s and 90 had become dustbins for discards who were not good enough to make it in their preferred music.
"Blues, Beatles, and whatnot"
Not particularly fond of The Beatles (having been driven out of my home town of Liverpool, where, unless you were interested in them or football - there was nothing else), so why should I conned into a folk club to listen to their songs(invariable poorly performed).
Jim Carroll