since Martin started this thread, and he is more oriented toward Bluegrass & Country, I'm sure it is a bit lop-sided for him...I do know that both Bluegrass & Country, although they have folk roots, are often narrow fields over here, and have their own focused web sites and festivals and discussions. We don't have a 'lot' of Mudcatters who will start an extended discussion of Bill Monroe or Waylon Jennings, though they may reply if they see one.

Mudcat has people who know a bit about all sorts of things, and if a Bluegrass question pops up, it will get replies, but many of the serious American 'folkies' realize that the roots of their music is often in the UK, and end up following a lot of the UK focused threads also.

I do know I have picked up on many UK performers I never heard of by seeing posts on Mudcat, partly because almost everyone in the UK knows the same ones. Here in the USA, there are entire folk scenes in different parts of the country which seldom meet each other. Mudcat has allowed some more cross-fertilization of the music scene, and will no doubt do more yet...

(So...when ARE others besides Joe Offer gonna come see us in the east?)