Gary, I agree that artists after a while tend to get slick and loose "it". It may be to increase sales and profit, I suppose, or maybe they just get lost in the technicallity of producing music and forget to listen to the end product. Too "clever" in other words. Lead Belly, Woody Guthrie, Ewan McColl, Nic Jones and others kept "it": I've just been listening to some Sis Cunningham tracks recorded in '75 and as fresh as her Almanac work. In some cases it may be that their careers were sadly very short. Pete Seeger had it, lost it and got it back: some of the popular stuff with the Weevers was truely dire - but he's still there! Dr John.