Small and intimate often fits the bill

The ground is shifting in the local folk scene. The concert market is clearly shrinking, with fewer artists able to pack Sanders, the Somerville Theatre, and other large venues. At the same time, a rising national wave of folk nightclubs, such as Capo's in Lowell, are offering fans a new way to combine the classy comfort of the concert hall with the homey intimacy of the coffeehouse.

Ellen Friedman of Multistage Productions, the area's most durable folk concert presenters, worries that the pool of headliners who can reliably fill a big hall is growing smaller.

"There have not been a whole lot of people who have moved from the coffeehouse to the concert stage since Lori McKenna did it five years ago," she says. "I think radio is a big part of that. There used to be some play on commercial AAA stations, at least for people like Dar Williams, but that's disappearing. When audiences don't keep hearing new artists, they tend to forget about them."

Still, this lack of commercial media visibility hardly reflects a downward trend for folk, according to Club Passim manager Matt Smith. He says the Harvard Square coffeehouse is doing the best overall business in its history, with more than 70 percent of its weekend shows selling out. He also says that more major concert headliners, such as Janis Ian and Arlo Guthrie, are moving back to the club level by choice. Guthrie returns for a weeklong residency at Passim November 15-19.

There is a similar trend among rising young folk acts. Local songwriting star Kris Delmhorst, for example, can pack the Somerville Theatre but also maintains a steady presence at local clubs. The long-term survivors in the folk world, such as Greg Brown, Cheryl Wheeler, and local bluesman-songwriter Chris Smither, thrive by combining lots of club work with the occasional major concert. "There's no two ways about it," Smither says, "what I do comes across better in smaller venues. I just played for 12,000 people at the Philadelphia Folk Festival, and it was fine, but you don't have that sense of climbing into their lap, snuggling up to their ear, and saying, `Hey, I've got something for you.' And that's what I'm all about."

Because the folk audience seems to be growing nationwide, he's noticed more front-rank acoustic nightclubs opening in urban areas, offering dinners, full bars, and a lineup of folk and roots acts, very much in the model of the successful Davis Square bistro Johnny D's.

That folk cabaret ambience perfectly describes the two-year-old Lowell venue Capo's (www

.caposfolk.com), where Smither performs for the first time Oct. 24. Lynn songwriter-comedian Don White has been performing to full houses there since the club opened and returns Nov. 6. He says he would love to see more venues like it open in this area. "Capo's has everything my audience wants. My fans are a little older, mostly parents like myself. Their night out is their night out; they want to have dinner, a few drinks, spend some money, have some social fun -- but they don't want that to screw up the show. Capo's is really designed for all of that."

Smither says flatly that 10 club dates in front of 150 people does his career more good than one concert in front 1,500.

"Those 10 gigs are going to be with people who felt like they were right next to me, like they really got to know me. And they did, much more so than at the bigger gig.

"They feel like they were part of what was happening, and they'll come up and tell you that. Those are people who are going to be back."