My guitar playing has always been more about vocal accompaniment than about any guitar virtuosity. I regularly put monotonic bass, fingerstyle blues numbers like Kindhearted Woman, Love in Vain Blues and Big Bill's Hey Hey on the set list. Hey Hey requires some pretty cool tricks, but those Robert Johnson tunes in A are pretty easy to get a workable version going, not too tricky; here's a simple version monotonic bass I recorded: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdW_GSdYW_8
I worked out a cool, fingerstyle version of CCR's Green River that folk seem to like listening to. There is some monotonic bass passages in that.
A few of my favorites for alternating bass styles are Deep River Blues, Windy and Warm, and lately, a fun version of Dylan's Buckets of Rain, Buckets of Tears.
I think a beginner would do well getting the alternating bass rhythm down first, make that second nature, then work on fancy stuff bit by bit. You can use that in country blues, piedmont blues, ragtime and so much folk music of different flavors. And anyone who can play a rock stead alternating bass can learn to change it up on simpler styles, or syncopate more like ragtime piano, or develop into more free bass lines like foldedpath mentions. Doesn't have to be a trap ... didn't keep foldedpath trapped ... but alternating bass is a good place to start for folk music, most people agree on this I think.
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