Somebody gotta speak up for the oldtimers.

Dock Boggs for a wonderfully loopy, loose 2-finger style. Also Charlie Poole's "baseball finger" style, which was 3 fingers but sounded like two.

Best ensemble: Charlie Poole.

Banjo duet: can there be anything more beautiful than Da Costa Woltz and Frank Jenkins on "Sweet Sunny South?"

Songster: Uncle Dave Macon, hands down.

Black banjo picker: jury's out on this. Dink Roberts? John Snipes? My personal favorite is Clarence Frost.

3-finger pre-Scruggs: Charlie Parker of North Carolina's Parker & Woolbright, circa 1928, too rarely heard.

Frailing: tough to beat Tom Ashley on "Coo Coo Bird" and Walter Williams of Salyersville, Ky (Lib. Congress original on Rounder and Pete Seeger's source) on "East Virginia."

Check out Morgan Sexton too for some good sounds.

Bluegrass: Not a very original choice, but it's hard to get around the originals, Earl Scruggs, Ralph Stanley.

modern: Pete Seeger, basing his style on Bascom Lamar Lunsford and branching out from there, did some terrific things. His Darling Corey is still a model of good clean sweet playing. He can still be one of our best traditional-revival pickers when he feels like it. Sister Peggy and brother Mike, of course, are masters of the older styles when not doing other things, but I can't pick out any one standout piece.

And, finally, Vess Ossman for the best, most fun classical banjo pickin ever.

All this off the top o me head. Heaven forbid I should start clocking my way through my record collection!

In general, a good many more contemporary banjo players miss, I think, the lilt and the construction of sound in space, a talent the older players had before lightning speed and sheer technique turned the banjo into a showpiece instrument.

Bob