I have to echo Barry's thoughts. I was at the same session at witnessed that young man lead the group. There is hope for the future.

On a "professional" level, there are signs of life with a number of artists who are gracing the stages of clubs, coffehouses and festivals in the northeast.   Erica Smith, Rebecca Hall and Bethanny Yarrow have incorporated traditional music into their art. The Philly Folk Festival is filled with young people who love the music. Groups like Full Frontal Folk combine that Generation X attitude with traditional values. I understand there is a group in the UK called Witches of Elswick (I played a cut from a demo on my show this week) who sound lovely!

While folk music does not need "professional" support in order to survive, I do think that role models like the above help make the music "cool" again.   Lets face it, the reason many of us were turned on to the music was because it was non-conformist in many ways.

As Woody Guthrie said, folk music will always be around because there are lots of folks.

Ron