NAN It's amazing to me that so many threads take off on a tangent; how "ole Timeey" Ameican songs becomes "should we not sing naything that hints of being non PC". I think I'll start a new thread on that subject.

In the meantime: I am reading a novel by Charles Frazier titled COLD MOUNTAIN which I find facinating. I originally went to the book/record store to get a CD "Songs from the Mountain" by Dirk Powell, Tim O'Brian, and John Herrmann that I heard reviewed on NPR. I discovered a copy of the CD and book packaged together at a great savings so I bought it am am glad that I did. The writing is excellent and makes one feel a part of the story. The CD has been played over and over again and is truly "OLE TIMEY" I plan to learn all the fiddle tunes on it that I don't already know and the different versions of the tunes I do know.

ANOTHER American who wrote and recorded great songs is Jimmy Driftwod. I have all his records so I don't know if there are any CD's of his out or not. He did many traditional Ozark Mountain songs and wrote many himself in the old style. You might know "The Battle of New Orleans" set to the fiddle tune The 12th of January". He taught me these songs when I was in high school and just starting college.

As you could assume from that I grew up in Arkansas. Attended Little Rock Central High after it was opened again and could relate experiances that would guarentee that I would NEVER be a racist, but I have to come down on the side of Banjer and Jim Hinsill. Their side, I believe, is the TRUTH. If we neglect that truth your grandchildren Kat will have to relive the horrors of those poor souls who suffered under totally misguided, and at times, EVIL people; people who acted from a FALSE sense of the truth. You might check out the book "Lies My Teacher Told Me" by James W. Loewen, The New Press.