I used to go to folk clubs in the mid 1960's and, after a long absence, I started going to folk clubs again this century and one thing that struck me was that the mix of types of song that are being sung is not really that different even after an absence of nearly 40 years i.e. a mix of traditional songs, newly composed songs based on traditional song and the occasional adapted pop song. There was always a fuzzy edge and a number of songs that were labelled "folk" in record shops were much closer to pop than to folk.

For this reason, I find Jim Carroll's explanation for the decline of the folk clubs in the 1980's not entirely convincing.

I suspect it might have had a lot more to do with people like me who developed other [musical] interests, got married, had children to bring up and careers to develop so did not have the spare time (or money) to go to folk clubs. When I moved to Teesside in the late 1970's I thought about starting to go again, had a look round and found information on the Cutty Wren (Which is still going, btw) but I did not have a car in those days and getting there by public transport though possible was not practical so I put the idea aside at that time. I didn't find Stockton club, but the same problem of getting there - and even more so home afterwards would still have existed.

I still haven't been to the Cutty Wren, though I know some of their regulars. Maybe one day {g}