Many years ago I heard (the late) Steve Goodman (USA) playing solo and acoustic at a Cambridge Festival and was immediately smitten. Bought several LPs he made, before and subsequently, and all had too much going on for most of the time. Luckily some of his unembellished stuff is available via youtube, poor audio and video in some cases though. I guess them's the breaks; as someone pointed out, producers (especially for major labels) are trying to sell albums into a potentially larger world than just the folk/acoustic world; the trends of the day also undoubtedly play a part...