Please put the caveat on the post that you are speaking for yourself Peter. Not all of us are musically stuck in high school, applauding our memories.

I am just a tad younger than the Kingston Trio generation (that was my older siblings time). The consumer/radio music I listened to was Fairport, Pentangle, Bothy Band, Arlo Guthrie, Dylan, the Band, Poco, New Riders, Doc Watson, along with the rock, pop, blues, soul, R & B of the day. Over the years, my musical tastes, NOT THE FOLK SCARE/KINGSTON TRIO types, led me to deeper explorations of a lot of traditional music. And classical music. And roots music. And blues music.

The whole folk club phenomena was largely an English one, which never really caught on outside a few spots in mainland Britain, and a few clubs in the US, mostly on the east coast. Having no experience with New Zealand or Australia, I can't speak for the popularity of the folk club set there. But the folk club community was never any more "authentic" traditional in it's day than Branson is now, so I don't see what the tragedy is of folk clubs going the way of the dinosaur. IMO, they bloody well deserve to go out that way. Give me a pub session, a festival, or intimate gatherings in someone's home over a folk club any day of the week.