"every club we attend, we hear folk music"
Meaningless statement if you can't define what "folk song" means - there's been enough argument here to prove beyond a doubt that that's the case and enough of the same to show that that is not even desirable any more
I would never in a million years argue that there aren't successful clubs that call themselves folk (though saying my clubs healthy doesn't get away from the fact that there are only a minute number of them compared to what there were a couple of decades ago
I went to folk clubs to hear a certain type of music (Joe's just given a fair description of what type, but I would exclude unaccompanied as a 'must' - with a few exceptions)
When I stopped hearin what I wanted I stopped going, as did thousands like me
The labels disappeared, the magazines dwindled, the specialist shops closed... - and everybody ran around like blue-arsed flies blaming everything else other than the fact that you were no longer guaranteed hearing a folk song at a folk club
That's as simple as it comes Dave
Dick just touched on another important point - people aren't going to turn up forever to watch people practicing in public from crib-sheets and I-phones
"Ya wanna go to Carnegie Hall lady - ya gotta practice"
Jim