Making money a factor in folk song is a nail in its coffin before it even begins feeling a little queasy."
what a load of crap, money is one[not the only but one] of the incentives for most professional musicians, if you want to have professional standards [and you are always banging on about amateurish performance people reading from notes etc] then you have to have professional performers, professional performers have to practise their music,that generally means they need the time to do it, that is facilitated for them if they can work at it full time., OR HAVE A PART TIME JOB THAT ALLOWS THEM TIME TO PRACTICE
I could have earned a lot more money if i had chosen another form of music, but i loved playing this kind of music and accepted that the financial rewards would be less than in the pop world, but that dOes not stop me accepting money for performance, however i do on occasions play for nothing. I ALSO run a festival for nothing.