"Poppycock! Folk music has never encompassed whole swathes of society even in previous centuries. It's always been very much a minority interest. We revelled in it in the 60s and 70s as it was a breath of fresh air, largely rejected the rampant commercialism of other musics, but it was always largely off the radar and you had to go and seek it just as you have to today."
Well thank you for that relatively civil response Steve, but I can assure you that our club which closed in the mid seventies had audiences of several hundred every Saturday....all sorts, kids, grannies, young adults and a whole assortment of genuine characters from the folk music culture.....just from memory, Matt Maginn used to tour the pubs with us young guys, before and sometimes during the performances...there was wee Freddy Anderson giving his recitations to huge acclaim...big Mick Broderick with his magical stories, complete with unbelievable sound effects and death defying 1.5 piked dives from the stage....Billy Connolly and Gerry Rafferty at least twice a month, Alex Campbell, Josh MacRae, Danny Kyle, The Campbells of from England and many many more....Forgot Barbara Dickson, but amazingly it was mostly about the audience, which the best performers played like an instrument. People went home full of emotion, certain that they had made a contribution to a life enhancing evening.
It was not always purely traditional but by Christ it was "folk music"