Suffet seems like a good guy, but he's an insider. The places he lists are all the "same old same old" that cater to the insider. If Bob Dylan showed up incognito tomorrow playing "Man of Constant Sorrow" and "Jesus Gonna Make My Dyin' Bed" the way he did in 1961, what do you think would be his chances of landing a gig? Slim and none. And Slim was last seen leaving for Paris on TWA Flight 800!

My advice would be to find venues as far removed from the established folk scene as possible. Try getting booked to play pubs for sure, but also try public libraries, community centers, schools from pre-K through university level, shopping malls, street fairs, even housing projects. New York has projects called Mitchell Llama Houses, and they were started by union activists in the forties and fifties. Many of them have cultural programs in the evening, and they often hire folk musicians.